


The New Kid

by petermanspideyparker



Series: The New Kid [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Awkward Crush, BAMF Michelle Jones, Canada, F/M, First Love, Flash Thompson Being A Jerk, High School, Innocent Peter Parker, Light Angst, Middle School, Mutual Pining, Obsession, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-05-20 04:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 53
Words: 72,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19370044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petermanspideyparker/pseuds/petermanspideyparker
Summary: Michelle Jones never liked being around people. One day, she's asked to show a new student from Canada around the school. He's short, skinny, and just has the cutest smile. Peter's her first friend, her first crush, and is definitely the love of her life.





	1. Canada

Michelle Jones was a bit of an introvert. It wasn’t that she disliked people. But she just preferred to be on her own, and didn’t care much for socializing. That's the way it had always been. Even on her first day of kindergarten when the other kids asked her to play, she said nothing, and decided to seclude herself in the corner and read.

Every teacher and student who knew the girl who called herself 'MJ' knew that trying to get her to talk was a hopeless case. Getting MJ to be fake to someone was a waste of time. Getting MJ to meet new people would certainly end in disaster.

Which made it all the more curious when the principal asked her to ‘show around the new kid’. Halfway through the meeting, MJ realized that she wasn’t really asking, but subtley getting told to show around the new kid.

MJ didn’t really know what to expect from this boy. And if there was one thing Michelle Jones hated, it was a lack of information.

Obviously because of the incompetence of her school, she knew very little. The information provided was relatively standard. His name was Peter Parker, he was in the eighth grade like her, lived with his aunt and uncle, and just moved to New York from a small town in Canada. The big city was definitely going to terrify this shy country boy.

Unfortunately, they didn’t really learn much about the Great White North in this school. All she had were unconfirmed stereotypes - none of which would be useful. She would be going into this thing blind.

What also confused MJ was why they were meeting at the end of the day. Seriously. Why the hell would that make a difference?

Now, almost an hour after the final bell rang, MJ sat on the steps outside of her school, staring down at the current book she was reading.

Of Human Bondage.

A book about an orphan boy who goes to live with his aunt and uncle. It was really a complete coincidence.

“Excuse me, miss?” A voice practically squeaked.

She let out a slightly annoyed sigh and looked up to see who was interrupting her novel. Her eyes locked with dark brown eyes, and round glasses, immediately turning her from an irritated state to having butterflies in her stomach.

A boy with floppy brown hair, and rosy cheeks was smiling down at her. He was far shorter compared to her, and he was quite skinny. His flannel seemed to hang off of his shoulders instead of him actually wearing it. She could easily wrap her hands around his incredibly small wrists that were practically just skin and bone.

MJ never really thought much of people’s appearances, but holy crap, he looked adorable!

“I’m really sorry if I’m bothering you, but are you Michelle Jones?”

MJ quickly got up from the steps - possibly a bit too eagerly - and brushed the dirt off her jeans.

“Who are you, exactly?” She asked, beginning to smile uncontrollably

It was a pointless question. She was already pretty sure what the answer was, but MJ always wanted to confirm her suspicions.

“Peter Parker. I’m uh, I’m supposed to meet a girl named Michelle Jones here to get a tour of the school.”

“T- that’s me. B- but you can call me MJ.”

What?! Only you call yourself that! Why the hell are you giving this kid permission to do that?

“MJ,” He smiled back, extending his hand. “Cool name.”

She shook back firmly. MJ prided herself on being observant, and noticed something about his hands. They had plenty of thick calluses, and were quite rough. It appeared that he worked with them a lot. She was also pretty sure there were traces of dirt under his nails, but for some reason, it didn't bother her in the slightest.

Nervously, MJ tucked her hair behind her ears, feeling her face heat up.

“Thanks.”

A few things to note. A: The Canadian accent is very faint when compared to the American one. B: They don’t end every sentence with ‘eh’ like they were portrayed to on television shows. And C: This boy made her legs feel like jelly.

As hard as it was to admit to herself, she was human. Although she had successfully conviced the entire school that she was a vampire - a fact that she was _extremely_ proud of. Despite this horrible fact, MJ had never found someone attractive before.

“So, you’re from Canada?”

He let out a small chuckle.

“Yep. It’s a pretty small farm in Manitoba. Way different from here.”

Her school didn’t teach anything about geography outside of America. MJ reminded herself to look up the location when she got home. Another thing that she didn’t care for was asking for help. If she was going to achieve something, she wanted it to be done on her own merit

But the farming did explain the poor condition of his hands.

“Where to first?” Peter asked happily.

“I’d say the library. But you probably don’t want to go there. No one ever does, outside of myself. So, we can just –”

“Actually, I love reading.”

He’s already perfect!

Shut up! You’re not supposed to be thinking about boys! They’re horrible!

Except this one.

“You do?”

“Yep! I spent a lot of my free time at the library. What kind of books do you like? For me, it’s mostly history, science, and sometimes Sherlock Holmes.”

And he reads REAL books!

Okay. Maybe he’s kind of, just a tad, cute.

MJ began to blush again, but it was almost unnoticeable, thanks to the combination of her darker complexion and her incredible self-control.

“I- I’m sorry. What was the question?” she asked, not entirely sure what he just said.

“What kind of books do you like?”

“Oh, uh, right. I read Shakespeare a lot. And pretty much anything else I can get my hands on. I don't really care if it's good or not, sometimes. And the occasional French novel. I don’t want to bore you with the details.”

“Ce n'est pas ennuyeux.”

MJ had totally forgot that they had two official languages up in Canada.

“C- cool.” she barely got the words out. “Let’s go then.”

The two started to walk towards the library. MJ had no idea what she should say.

“So, what do people do for fun around here?”

“I uh, I don’t really know what other people do. I don’t have any friends.”

“Oh. A- are we going to be friends?” he asked hopefully.

“I’d like to be.”

But people suck!

It was hard to tell with his rosy cheeks, but she was pretty sure he was blushing.

“And to answer your question, I like to read, draw, go on walks, and sometimes protest.”

“What are protests like?”

MJ stared down at Peter.

“Haven’t you at least seen one before?”

“Never. It’s not that we don’t care about stuff back home, and it’s really cool that you stand up for what you believe in and all.

But there’s just not a lot of problems like that.”

“Not even Black Lives Matter?”

“Is that a thing?” His voice was filled with surprise. “All lives matter. Personally, I don’t see a reason for that to happen.”

Oh my God. He’s so sweet!

“Down here, people tend to judge based on race.”

“But race doesn’t matter. We’re all just people.”

“What were the people like? Back home, I mean.”

“Super nice. Everyone knows everyone, we see each other all the time at church, and people are very trusting. One time, our neighbor borrowed our car for a week. Came back without a scratch and a full tank of gas.”

“You lent them your car?”

Peter shrugged.

“Why wouldn’t we? Is that not normal?”

“I’ll save you the trouble. If you did that with your new neighbor, you’ll never see your car again.”

He smiled brightly

“Good to know.”

Cute, loves books, and doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.

Is this what it felt like to have a crush for the first time?

Crush?! What is the matter with you?!

Nothing. Does he seem like a bit of a dork? Absolutely. But that science pun t-shirt was adorable!

MJ wanted to know everything about Peter.

She wasn’t obsessed with him though. She just liked information.


	2. Feelings

MJ was sitting up on her bed with her sketchbook in one hand and a pencil in the other.

Once she got home from showing Peter around the school, she immediately went up to her room to draw him into existence inside her favourite sketchbook.

It was far more detailed than any of her other drawings. She decided to draw him exactly as he was at the school. Same clothes, same rosy cheeks, and his adorable, floppy hair.

MJ was able to get that smile perfect. Just the way that he looked when he smiled, it made her feel amazing. A feeling that she could barely even begin to describe, that even amazing didn't do it justice.

Much to her surprise, she found herself letting out a small giggle, staring back into the dark, shaded eyes of the drawing-Peter.

Giggle?! What the hell is the matter with you?! You meet this one random boy and you act like this!

But Peter was just amazing.

He was in awe of the size of the building. Apparently, his old school was quite small due to the population of the town. When they got to high school, he was in for a big surprise.

MJ didn’t really draw people often. When she did, it was of her parents or siblings. Although she tended to portray their more negative characteristics, mostly so she could insult them in the most subtle way. But it was different with Peter. Instead, MJ focused on his qualities rather than his flaws (something she couldn't find in him yet).

This was completely normal. Drawing a picture of a boy you just met who you’re pretty sure you like. Everyone does that.

Peter was different from the other people at school. He was actually nice to her, treated her normally. It was like a breath of fresh air. It may have also been comparable to the thrill of correcting a teacher... or not. Probably a close second.

MJ almost thought about walking him home. The poor thing had never been in such a big city before. It was like he was this cute little puppy. However, no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't come up with a way to build up the courage to do it.

She was pulled from her thoughts when her older sister, Jane, burst in through the door. Of all her siblings, MJ hated Jane the most. Kind of. It was a fine line between love and hate. On rare occasions, they got along. Every other time...? Not so much. Jane just went out of her way to embarrass MJ at every turn, and she seemed to enjoy it.

“Hey. Dad says dinner’s in five. So…”

In a panic, MJ quickly closed her sketchbook and placed it under her pillow, hoping that it would go unnoticed ny her incredibly nosy sister.

“What’s in the book?” Jane inquired with a grin on her face.

“N-nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Jane simply shrugged in response, leaning against the frame of the door.

“Okay then.”

Wait. Did she really drop it just like that? This wasn't right, obviously. But apparently, meeting cute boys did things to a girl. Even MJ. And her senses had somehow been dulled by that damned smile, because she didn't even think to question this anomaly.

“Anyway, we have to go set the table. You coming, or what?”

MJ climbed off of her bed, making sure that her older sister stayed directly in front of her and closed the door behind them. Despite begging with her parents, she still didn't have a lock on the door. Privacy was meant to be respected, something that never happened in a household as observant/annoying as the Jones'.

When they were about halfway down the stairs, Jane turned around in a flash, ramming past MJ and dashing towards her sisters’ room.

Damn it! Why would you think she’d drop it?!

She opened the door like an absolute maniac, and went diving underneath the pillow.

MJ stopped in the doorway, completely paralyzed by fear.

“Jane, please!”

“You said it was nothing, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.”

At times, it was extremely hard to love this girl. It was like the two were polar opposites. She cared about school, books, and respecting peoples wishes. MJ hated being in other people's company.

On the opposite side of the spectrum was Jane Jones, an extrovert who practically lost her mind when she didn't have someone to talk to. She couldn't even remember how many times she came home early in the morning after spending all night at some college party since she'd stopped keeping track after four. MJ wouldn't be able to show her face in public if she did the things Jane did.

MJ could only imagine how horrible things were about to get. Jane would never let her forget it. And then she would tell her brothers and other sisters.

Then her parents.

That was so much worse than everyone else!

She looked up from the sketchbook, smirking, and MJ could feel her heart sink down to her stomach. She wanted to run, to hide, anything as long as it got her away from the chaos that was about to enter her life.

Her parents were bad, but this part wasn’t that great though.

“Who’s this?”

“No one.” She said immediately, feeling her face heat up.

“I think my sisters got a boyfriend!”

“He’s not my boyfriend! We literally just met a few hours ago!”

Probably shouldn’t have mentioned that part.

“Is he the guy you were giving a tour of the school?”

“Yes! Okay! It’s not a big deal, so can we just drop it?!”

‘Oh, come on. It’s kind of sweet. Kind of weird too. But let’s just focus on sweet.”

MJ began to blush furiously. Talking about feelings was the worst! Why couldn’t people in this house be normal and keep them inside?!

“I don’t like him!”

“Never said you did. So, what’s he like? If your drawing’s as accurate as your other one’s, he looks like a bit of a loser.”

“Jane, could we please not talk about this?”

“If you don’t, I’ll stop getting you books from the university library.”

Holding books hostage. It doesn’t get much lower than that.

“He’s a loser alright. But he’s just so… innocent. And I kind of have a thing for guys that read.”

“No guy you know likes to read.”

“Exactly!”

“So, you meant that you have a thing for HIM. Normally, people would just get a crush because of looks. What’s it like being in that brain of yours?”

MJ rolled her eyes.

“A lot more interesting than being in yours. And he looks kind of… cute.” She whispered.

“Wait? Did Michelle Jones just use the word ‘cute’?”

“Shut up! Just don’t tell mom or dad!”

Speaking of which, their mother called them from the bottom of the stairs.

“I’m glad you two are talking, but dinner’s ready!”

“Coming!” They responded in unison.

The two quickly descended to the main floor and took their places at the table.

Hopefully, Jane would keep her mouth shut.

But her parents would probably like Peter. Since her mom, Robin, was an environmental lawyer, and he used to live on a farm, they at least had something in common. Kind of.

Her dad, Jim, was a vet, so the two would have something to talk about.

MJ wasn’t sure how they would react if they found out she had her first crush. But she did know that he was going to have a few awkward few months of middle school.

It was already October, and Eugene Thompson had a habit of picking on the new kid.

Much like her, Peter would definitely hate him. He just had one of those traits that you couldn’t name, but just screamed ‘douchebag’.

If she could, MJ would have put him in a box and carried him around wherever she went. Peter was just too pure for this crap school.

When her parents and other siblings sat down at the table, Jane just had to open her mouth.

“Michelle’s got a boyfriend.”

MJ spit out her water in shock.

“Damn it, Jane!”

“Language!” Her father scolded.

“Sorry. Jane, you idiot!”

“That’s better. So, when are we going to meet this boyfriend of yours?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend!”

“But she does have a crush on a boy.”

Her mother raised her eyebrows.

“But you hate boys.”

“She likes one boy.” Jane said teasingly.

“Aren’t you a little young to be dating?” Her brother, Luke, asked.

“I’m in eighth grade!”

“Barely.”

“Who is he?”

“Mom, I –”

“He’s the new kid who she was showing around the school.”

“You just love making me miserable, don’t you?”

“It’s what siblings are supposed to do.”

“New kid, huh?” Emma smiled. “Where’s he from?”

“I think Manitoba.”

That was the place, right?

Oh, who are you kidding? You googled it about half a dozen times already!

“Where’s Manitoba?” Ryan whispered to Angela.

“I think it’s in Canada.”

“Can we please just stop talking about this?!” MJ cried. “Is he my boyfriend?! No! Do I like him?! Yes! B-but nothing’s going to even happen, so who cares!”

She angrily got up from her seat and stormed upstairs to her room.

Talking about feelings definitely sucked.


	3. First Day

Peter had no idea what to do with himself. There was always something to do back home.

His usually schedule was getting up at around five and doing some chores, going to school, homework, more chores, and then read a little.

But now, he was laying in his bed staring up at the ceiling. Nothing to do. School didn’t start for about an hour or so, but he wasn’t that worried.

It was a huge school, but MJ had shown him to all his rooms. They had the exact same classes, so she said if he got lost, just follow her.

She was super nice. It made the whole ‘freaking out because you’re in a new country’ thing a lot more comfortable.

Peter thought he should probably start getting ready.

Aunt May was already out for her shift at the hospital, and uncle Ben was still out on the job search. There wasn’t exactly high demand for farmers/former military.

Ben had found temporary work at a grocery store, and it still helped pay the bills. He just wanted his uncle to be happy.

Peter was brought back to reality when Jeremy pushed open the door with his nose.

“Since when do you get up this early?”

He made a motion with his hand and his dog jumped up onto the bed. Jeremy curled up next to him.

“And now you’re back to sleeping. Glad to see you haven’t changed.”

Jeremy was a rather large Newfoundland dog. He would shed everywhere he went, drool, eat everything in sight, and was incredibly lazy. Peter loved him.

As he began to get up, Jeremy began to whimper. He was also incredibly needy.

“Fine. But just for like, five minutes.”

It was great having him around. A lot of things have changed since moving from the farm. Seriously, why the hell way New York City so expensive?

They lived in a pretty small house now in some area called Queens. And the middle school was much closer than the one in Manitoba. He used to walk for about an hour, but now it was less than half the time.

As Peter pet Jeremy’s head, his thoughts drifted back to MJ. She was the first girl he ever felt comfortable talking to. The one’s back home were nice and all, but they never had anything to talk about outside of the people they new. MJ was a real person. Sure, Peter couldn’t understand a lot of what she said about America, but she was still cool.

The five minutes he promised to his dog turned into half an hour. Peter was so weak.

He quickly got out of bed and threw on some jeans and a semi clean flannel. Jeremy let out a small woof and gestured to the nightstand where his glasses were.

“Thanks, buddy.”

Peter put on his glasses and grabbed his backpack off of the floor.

If he went fast enough, he could make it on time. Breakfast was just going to have to wait.

“I’ll see you after school.”

Peter hurried out the front door and tried to lock behind him. Apparently, it had a habit of sticking. It took longer than he hoped, but it eventually locked.

He walked quickly down the sidewalk, and saw his neighbor’s garbage can had fell over on the road. Peter stopped for just a second to pick it up.

Mr. and Mrs. Burkas were really great. But as MJ put it, people in the city weren’t always friendly. When he first came here, he thought the complete opposite. Over eight million people wanting to live together in one area. Peter expected them to be some of the nicest people ever.

Once he finished cleaning it up, he continued on his way to school. Peter jogged for a minute or two in order to make up for the lost time.

He stopped in his tracks when there was a noise coming from a nearby alley. It was a stupid idea, but Peter went to check it out.

“Look, Eugene, can I just get going?”

“I told you, it’s Flash!”

A Filipino boy who was about his age was backed into a corner by a group of other boys. Peter wasn’t one hundred percent certain, but they didn’t seem like the were being friendly.

“Is everything alright here, eh?”

The one called ‘Flash’ looked back at Peter.

“Mind your own business.”

“I think he wants to be left alone.”

Flash glared at Peter.

“Forget Ned, guys.”

The others backed away from Ned and surrounded Peter.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, and he received a punch to the stomach. Flash pushed him towards the wall where he was grabbed by two others.

Flash cocked his fist back and punched his stomach again as hard as he could.

One of the guys holding him hit him in the jaw, and threw him onto the ground.

“Aww. Look at the poor thing.” Flash mocked.

The group began kicking Peter mercilessly as hey layed on the ground defenseless.

First day of school was not going great.

Peter was left aching, with blood across his face. He spat it out onto the concrete and wiped it away with his sleeve.

“Are you good?” He asked Ned.

“Dude! You’re the one who just got beaten up!”

Peter chuckled slightly.

“I had ‘em on the ropes. I’m Peter, by the way. Peter Parker.”

“Ned Leeds.”

“Who where those guys?”

“Eugene ‘Flash’ Thompson. Everyone at my school hates him, but he’s a huge jackass.”

Welp, you can cross ‘meeting a jackass in America’ off your bucket list.

“Hey, what school do you go to?”

“Queens Middle School. You?”

“No way! Met too! It’s actually my first day.”

Ned looked down at his watch.

“It’s nice to meet you, dude. We’d better get going.”

“Right.”

The two took off towards their school. Unsurprisingly, they became good friends on the way over. Mutual dislike of someone really made it easy to bond.

 

Peter and Ned arrived at their homeroom ten minutes late. Ms. Ross glared at them, standing in the doorway.

“Mr. Leeds, you’re late.”

“Sorry miss.”

“And you.”

Peter’s eyes widened.

“Is that blood?”

“Uh… no. It’s uh… something that isn’t blood?”

Great excuse!

“You’re Mr. Parker, correct?”

“Yes, miss.”

“Take your seat. And try not to be late again.”

Peter walked to the empty seat at the back of the room. Thankfully, it was between Ned and Michelle.

“Hey, MJ.” He whispered happily.

“What the hell is the matter with you?”

That didn’t go as he had hoped it would.

“Excuse me?”

“Not in a bad way. I meant, how are you hurt?”

“Oh. I ran into Ned on the way to school and some guy named Eugene Thompson happened.”

Ned immediately cut into the conversation.

“He got his ass handed to him.”

“Well, that’s kind of up for debate.”

MJ’s face had a worried expression.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Never better.”

She reached over and brushed his cheek. His face grew redder with blush.

“Sorry. You uh… you had a bit of blood there. I-it’s gone now.”

“Thanks.” He responded softly.

MJ was definitely the nicest girl he’d ever met.


	4. Lego, Betty, and Ben

“How’d you do it, dude?” Ned asked Peter.

The two were walking home from school, making sure to avoid alleys this time.

“How’d I do what?”

“Get Michelle Jones to talk to you.”

“Why’s that such a big deal? I think she’s cool, and we have a few things in common.”

“The big deal is that she doesn’t talk to anyone. Or like anyone. And for some reason, she’s nice to you, and was worried about you.”

“I mean, she told me that she didn’t have any friends, so I asked if we were going to be, and then she said she hoped so. MJ’s really nice.”

Ned turned to him with his brows raised.

“MJ?”

“You know. Her nickname.”

“Uh… Peter… no one’s allowed to call her that. Is it something about Canadians that makes people like you?”

“I don’t think so. So far, it’s just you and MJ. And I didn’t exactly make a good impression on the teachers. You guys are like the only friends I have here.”

Peter didn’t think much of it. Sure, he was technically her first friend. And apparently the first person who she was nice to. And the first person she let use her nickname. And she was worried about him getting beat up. That’s what friends do!

He was hoping to get MJ to like Ned too. Back home, he was always with his friends, so it would be nice to have a group he could be around.

“Hey, what are you doing when you get home?”

“Uh… nothing really. No homework or chores. I thought I’d lay around, bored for the next few hours.”

“If you want, we could hang out at my place. I just got a Lego Death Star.”

“No way! How many pieces?!”

“Three thousand eight hundred and three. I’ll take your excitement as a yes.”

“Hell yeah! I never thought I’d meet someone else who still built Lego’s.”

“Why wouldn’t you? And the Death Star combines two awesome things. Lego, and Star Wars!”

“Exactly! I can’t wait for the new movie!”

“It’ll be awesome to see all the original characters back together.”

Ned’s house was about ten minutes away from Peter’s. He quickly called aunt May to tell her he’d be hanging out there for a little bit.

As they were walking up the driveway, Ned ran into a girl who was about his age. Peter assumed that it was his neighbor.

“H-hey, Betty.” He smiled.

“Hey, Ned.” She responded happily. “How you doing?”

Peter was standing back from a small distance. Ned stumbled over his words, and could barely control himself. It was the biggest smile he’d ever seen from the guy. Sure, they had only known each other for about seven hours, but still. Most obvious crush ever.

“So, I’ll uh, I’ll see you later?” Ned asked.

“I hope so.”

The two parted ways, and he noticed Peter smirking.

“What?”

“You like her.”

“That’s not… it’s just that… I, uh… yeah.” He conceded. “Is it really that obvious?”

“I noticed. And I’m often told that I’m super oblivious. So, yeah. It’s obvious.”

Ned groaned.

“This sucks.”

“Why? She likes you too.”

His eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head.

“S-she does?”

“When someone says ‘I hope so’ to something like that, they probably have a little more than friendship in mind.”

Peter really was oblivious. MJ said the exact same thing to him, but even with this conversation he didn’t think it mean she liked him.

“Are you going to tell her?”

“What?! Are you crazy?!”

“Um… probably not. Come on. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I could die. Haven’t you ever liked a girl?”

“Never.”

“Oh ho, you poor, innocent soul. When a guy likes a girl, he never EVER tells her. You don’t do anything about it, and hope that she’s the one who confesses their feelings. If not, you’ll get rejected.”

“… that doesn’t sound right.”

“Believe me, it is.”

“Well what if the girl’s the one pining over the guy and he has no idea that he likes her yet? What happens then?”

Ned scoffed.

“That has never happened in the history of humanity. And it never will.”

“But what if the two like each other and neither one knows it but it’s painfully obvious? AKA the exact situation you’re in right now.”

“Same rules. And you can never be completely sure.”

Peter knew that they were eventually going to get together. All they needed was a little push. He wasn’t going to pry though. And he didn’t have a concrete idea, or any idea at that. It was no mystery that he knew nothing about romance. Peter was only thirteen for God’s sake! But he did know that people deserved to be happy. And Ned was a good guy. Betty seemed like the perfect match for him.

 

 

Peter unlocked the door to his place and Jeremy started running towards him. He kneeled down, and the dog began licking his face.

“Aww, I missed you too buddy.”

“You know,” Uncle Ben began. “he uses that tongue on a lot of disgusting stuff.”

“I try not to think about it.”

Peter got up from the floor and embraced his uncle.

“How was your first day of school?”

Beaten up, late for the first class, got lost a few times.

“Not bad. Pretty uneventful though. How’s the job search going?”

The two made their way into the living room and sat down on the couch.

“I’ve actually applied to the police academy. It’s not the army, but I could still do what I love.”

Aunt May and uncle Ben had always encouraged Peter to get a job where he would help people. Sure, they didn’t pay as well as other jobs, but they did good for others. It was one of the things he loved best about them.

“I know it might not work out. And it’ll take a few months. And –”

“You don’t have anything to worry about. You’re perfectly qualified. It’ll work out.”

Ben ruffled Peter’s hair.

“Thanks. And that’s why you’re my favourite nephew.”

“I’m your only nephew.”

“So there’s no competition.”


	5. Plans

MJ always hated Eugene Thompson. She made an effort for every person in the school, teacher or student, to know that. He was the worst person she ever had the displeasure of meeting. MJ thought it couldn’t get any worse. Until Peter walked into school with blood on his face.

In that moment, all she wanted to do was murder him. Her anger was temporarily masked by her worry. And thankfully, Peter didn’t seem to notice.

The one good thing that came out of it was that she got to brush his cheek. Despite the blood, it was incredibly soft to the touch.

MJ had to write that down along with her list of facts about Peter.

He had also quickly become friends with Ned Leeds. MJ barely knew the guy, but Peter went out of his way to help him, so that was a point in his favour.

It had been about a week since she met Peter, and in that time, her attempts at getting close to him were going slow.

She had yet to puck up the courage to sit next to him during lunch. Instead, MJ would just be at the same table, listening to his conversation with Ned. It was adorable how he cared so much about things like Star Wars.

MJ never had much luck getting close to people. And Peter always hanging out with his friend was making things complicated. She wanted to get close to him, but it would take a while. If only Ned would be gone for just one day. Even the hour they had for lunch would do. Just Peter by himself. That would make her comfortable enough to get close to him. But, alas, the cute dork was never alone.

So many problems, not one solution.

After the school day was over, which she had spent watching Peter the entire time, MJ locked herself in her room writing in her notebook. This one was far different from her sketchbook. That was just for drawings. This book was where she kept all her information. Teachers secrets, student’s habits, blackmail, murder scenarios, and now everything about Peter.

Currently, she was devising a plan to get some quality alone time with Peter. All of which involved the demise of Ned Leeds. Needless to say, those plans were out. Her crush probably wouldn’t appreciate that.

Unfortunately, MJ’s bedroom door didn’t actually have a lock on it. Jane waltzed into the room smirking at her little sister.

“What are you doing?”

She closed her notebook in a huff.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Jane sat down on the bed and stretched her legs out.

“I know that you’re kind of pissed off at me because of what I told the family.”

MJ scoffed.

“Kind of pissed off? I asked you not to!”

“Just be glad that I convinced mom to not give you ‘the talk’ yet.”

“Oh my God!”

“Relax. Just remember that it could easily be reversed.”

Her eyes widened slightly.

“Explain.”

“Let me paint you a picture here. I catch my thirteen-year-old sister, who has recently felt her first feelings of love towards a boy who isn’t related to her, up in her room drawing.”

“Thanks to you, they already know about my little hobby.”

“You didn’t let me finish. The curiosity of human’s natural form has entered her young mind. And she has gone from drawing her crush fully clothed, to the opposite. I don’t think I have to spell out the rest for you.”

MJ began to blush furiously.

“What is it that you want?”

She answered as quick as lightning.

“What were you doing in your notebook?”

Well, she really walked into that one. It was either have the dreaded talk, or admit something embarrassing. It was a pretty easy decision.

“I was trying to figure out a way to get Peter alone.”

“So, you do need the talk?”

“Not that kind of way! I just… want to spend time with him.”

“Why don’t you?”

“He’s always hanging out with his friend, Ned. I want to be alone together. It was easier during the tour because it was just him.”

“How many murder scenarios do you have so far?”

“Thirteen.” She responded without skipping a beat.

As a little mental exercise, MJ enjoyed planning out the murders of people at her school. She was probably never going to act on them. It was just for fun. Except for Eugene Thompson. Those were always legitimate.

“I also thought of exposing Ned to influenza to get rid of him temporarily, but I don’t know how to do it on such short notice.”

“You know, people who aren’t crazy would just ask to hang out over the weekend or something. Or text.”

“You know I don’t text. The government reads all that crap. And not just America. I’m pretty sure that China has seen everything you send to your boyfriends.”

“Why China?”

“It’s the highest probability given the websites you visit. While you’re at it, you might want to change your iPhone password. It was too easy to figure out. And your computer password.”

“But they were just random numbers!”

“Nothing’s completely random. Probably rooted deep in your subconscious. Child’s play.”

“Okay, so texting’s out.” Jane looked up at MJ. “Did you –”

“Yeah. Don’t worry. I deleted all that disgusting stuff. I thought our parents raised you better than that.”

“Like you turned out so great.”

“I’m only seventy-two percent done.”

“Where’d you pull that number from?”

“Eighteen years old is an adult. I’m thirteen. Thirteen out of eighteen is seventy-two-point two percent repeating. I rounded down.”

“I hate you sometimes.”

“The feeling’s mutual. So, how do I get to spend time with him?”

“Didn’t I just say you should ask to hang out with him on the weekend?”

MJ shook her head quickly in response.

“I get so nervous around him! It always feels like my legs have turned to jelly!”

“You know, if you were just as confident talking to Peter as you were debating or being mean to people, you’d already be dating by now.”

“I know! I’m screwed!”

“Don’t worry. It’ll all fall into place eventually.”

MJ threw her notebook into her desk drawer and locked it. She placed the key in a box with a lock combination.

“I just need to focus on something else for a while. What are you doing this weekend?”

“I’m visiting dad’s office on Saturday. Do you want to come with?”

She sighed and rubbed her forehead.

“Fine. As long as there aren’t any cats. Those things are stupid.”

“Yeah. What kind of vet has cats in their office?!”


	6. Vet

On Saturday morning, Jane and MJ walked on the sidewalk in silence on the way to their father’s office.

MJ always enjoyed going down to the small animal hospital. Animals were so much better than people anyway. They didn’t talk. They were great listeners. And they would occasionally eat people. Unfortunately, there were never any gigantic snakes or alligators in the hospital.

It wasn’t too far from her house, so she could enjoy a nice walk. Usually without one of her many siblings, but it was Jane’s idea to get her mind off of Peter, so this wasn’t that bad. As long as she kept her mouth shut for once.

MJ hadn’t spoke to her family much for the rest of the week after the whole dinner freak out thing.

But what she found strange was how nice Jane was being about it. Jane goes from humiliating her at dinner in front of everyone, to helping her. Something definitely wasn’t right with this.

The two walked into the almost empty waiting room and sat down behind the front desk.

“What made you want to come here?”

Jane shrugged.

“Dad’s receptionist wasn’t coming in today. I thought I’d help him out.”

“Bullshit. You hate the smell of animals. You hate doing anything on Saturday or Sunday that even remotely resembles work. You insisted on being here at exactly ten o’clock. You’re obviously up to something, so spill.”

She turned around in her chair and smirked.

“Has the great Michelle Jones finally failed at deducing something?”

“No. I just haven’t narrowed it down yet.”

Jane looked down at her watch.

“There really no point in me telling you, because it’ll be perfectly clear in about… thirty seconds from now. Give or take a few more seconds. Maybe another minute later. Who knows?”

What the hell was she talking about?

Okay. Don’t worry about it. Just think.

Specific time at an animal hospital, and Jane knows what time this thing is going to happen. Most likely an appointment between her dad and someone with a pet.

“Can I see the schedule for the day?”

Jane held up a book in her hand.

“You mean this?”

“Just show me what it is.”

“Yeah… no. But I’ll try my best not to embarrass you. And keep in mind that I have the keys to the house, and everyone else is out. Don’t try to leave. It’s pointless. Also, you’re not allowed to go on your own.”

So, it’s probably someone she knows because of embarrassment. And she’s being held hostage here, so that can’t be good.

Who did MJ even know personally? It was a very short list. The entire family was out, and she didn’t have any friends other than…

MJ’s eyes widened as two people and a dog walked through the door.

“You didn’t.” She practically growled.

“Oh, but I did. You’re not the only one who can find out things.”

“How?”  
“I went into your notebook, found everything you knew about this ‘Peter Parker’ crush of yours. And while we’re on that, it’s kind of creepy how obsessed you are with him. Anyway, I noticed that dad had an appointment to meet a Ben ‘Parker’ about the family dog named Jeremy. You can thank me later.”

“You won’t live to see later!”

For God’s sake! MJ knew that Peter lived with his aunt and uncle! And that they had a dog! She should have been way more thorough when researching him!

That’s it. As soon as MJ got back home, she was going to start a category on May and Ben.

Peter and Ben walked up to the front desk, and MJ concealed her face as best she could.

“Hi. Ben Parker here to see Dr. Jones about Jeremy.”

Jane turned away from them for a brief moment and winked at Michelle.

“Of course, Mr. Parker. He’ll be just a minute. In the mean time, you can take a seat.”

“Thanks.”

When Peter and Ben had their backs turned, MJ crawled under the desk.

“I hate you so much!” She whispered.

“I know you mean love.”

She tucked her legs in and held her knees close to her chest. MJ could feel her heart begin to beat faster, and her face heating up.

Peter didn’t notice her, but now she was stuck here. Her dad couldn’t come out soon enough. And thankfully, her wish was granted.

She tuned out the conversation between them, breathing heavily. MJ closed her eyes and placed her head in her hands.

This was the worst thing that could have possibly happened.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Jane nudged her with her leg.

“You can come out now.”

“Is he gone?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re lying. I’m staying down here.”

“What if I’m not?”

“Still staying down here.”

“I thought you wanted to see him.”

MJ was still in her position on the floor, feeling like she was about to pass out.

“I do! I really want to! B-but I can’t!”

Jane crouched down next to her and started to rub her back softly.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have made this happen.”

“I-it’s okay. I just need a minute.”

“I’ll get you some water.”

She went into the back room, leaving MJ alone.

After a few seconds, she got up and sat down in the chair. MJ never freaked out like this before, but talking to people was never her strong suit. How could she possibly have a conversation with the boy she liked when she could barely handle being in the same room as him?

“MJ?”

There was only one person in the world who called her that.

She looked up to see Peter standing in the doorway.

“O-oh. Uh, h-hey.” MJ could barely get the words out.

“Hey!”

That damned smile.

“Is this your dad’s office?”

“Y-yeah. What are you… what are you doing here?”

She already knew the answer, but MJ didn’t know what he was doing outside in the waiting room.

“Uncle Ben and your dad said this was going to take a while, so I was just going to fill up the car. Do you know where the closest gas station is?”

“He lets you drive?”

“Well, yeah. Why not?”

“Because it’s illegal?”

“I’ve been driving since I was nine. I mean, the roads are usually empty, but still!”

MJ laughed quietly.

“You really shouldn’t drive in the big city. But there’s one about five minutes from here if you walk.”

“Great! Do you want to come with?”

Her face began to heat up once again.

“R-really?”

“Yeah. It’ll be nice to have some company. And I don’t know where it is. So, if you came with me then I wouldn’t get lost. And I still want you there. What do say?”

You wanted to spend time alone with him! Now’s your chance!

“Yes. I-I’ll go with you.”

Don’t freak out. He said he wants you there! And he’s an oblivious dork. If he hasn’t figured out that you’re about to burst by now, he never will.


	7. Crush

“Yes. I-I’ll go with you.”

Don’t freak out. Just be cool.

You’re never cool!

Peter had to admit that he maybe had a teeny tiny little crush on MJ. It was probably nothing.

Sure. She was easy to talk to. And she was really nice, smart, not afraid to speak her mind, and pretty. But it might not have been a crush.

Oh, who are you kidding? She’s great.

It had taken him the entire week at that school to realize it. He figured it out a couple of days ago when Eugene Thompson, as usual, was being a dick.

Not to him or Ned though. To be honest, Peter had no idea who they were.

It was during class when the teacher was out. He didn’t hear the whole thing leading up to it, but ‘Flash’ was saying some incredibly disgusting stuff to a group of girls. Peter never thought that someone would say things like that.

Long story short, MJ hit him over the head with a textbook.

Everyone other than him was terrified of her after that. It was a weird moment to realize that you like a girl, but Peter wasn’t going to pretend that he was normal.

His idea of beautiful would be described as ‘vaguely threatening’.

From that point on, he thought she was absolutely perfect.

“Y-you will?”

MJ nodded quickly.

“Yeah. I already said that.”

“Right. Sorry.”

Peter made his way to the door and held it open for her.

“It’s fine. You don’t need to apologize.”

“Sorry.”

The two stepped out of the animal hospital, and he opened the trunk of the car.

“How heavy is that thing?”

Peter effortlessly pulled out the Jerry Can.

“Now? Not much. But it’s empty. When it’s full? About forty pounds.”

“Do you want any help?”

“I’m definitely going to need it.” He chuckled. “It’s not like I have super strength.”

Not yet anyway.

Peter closed the trunk and stood next to MJ. She looked down at him, and the height difference became extremely clear.

“Which way are we going?”

“It’s just to the left. We should be back in about ten minutes.”

“Cool.”

She started walking down the sidewalk. Peter jogged up beside her to catch up.

Their hands brushed together slightly, but they both pulled them away.

“Sorry.”

“What for?”

“Uh… nothing. Sorry.”

MJ laughed softly.

“Canadians really do apologize a lot.”

“We just have really good manners. It’s kind of what happens.”

Peter didn’t know what to say next. She may have been easy to talk to, but that didn’t mean he was any good at it.

His topics of conversation were limited to Star Wars, other sci-fi, science, farming, and Canada. He barely understood the references she made regularly, so he was just grasping at straws here.

“Are you okay?”

“Uh. Y-yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“When I came in, you seemed kind of… upset, I guess.”

“You saw that?”

“I’m really sorry. I know it’s none of my business, but I was worried about you.”

MJ nervously pushed her hair behind her ear.

“Thanks. It was just something my stupid sister did. I’m not so mad at her anymore.”

“Oh. I’m glad you’re okay now. Siblings mean well though, right?”

“Usually no. They’re made to ruin your life.”

“Well I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. But they’re your family.”

“It doesn’t feel like it sometimes. She - Jane, I mean. She did something this week that was pretty crappy. I don’t know why, other than to embarrass me in front of the whole family. I still haven’t heard the end of it. And I trusted her not to tell anyone. Does that sound like family to you?”

Peter pushed up his glasses on his nose and rubbed the back of his neck.

“From what I’ve heard, that’s pretty accurate. Could I ask what she did?”

“No.”

“Sorry. But it sounds like it was pretty bad.”

“It was. She was kind of trying to help me now, but she could have made things a lot worse.”

Jane seemed pretty nice at the front desk. And Dr. Jones did too. Peter couldn’t even begin to understand what kind of family drama was going on in the Jones household, but he really felt bad for MJ. Whatever this was, he hoped it would work itself out.

“You have a big family?”

“One mom, one dad, two brothers, and three sisters. Jane, Emma, Angela, Luke, and Ryan. It’s a pretty big house, so I can usually avoid them.”

“Holy crap. Must be nice.”

“I thought I made it clear that it wasn’t.”

“I may come across a little bit crazy here, but –”

“You’re crazy.” She joked.

“But if I had a big family like yours, I’d never not be around them. You know, since it’s just uncle Ben, and May, and myself, I’ve always wanted something like that. It just sounds really nice.”

MJ nudged him with her elbow.

“I’ll admit that you kind of have a point, loser.”

“I’m a loser?”

“A huge one. But I mean it in a good way.”

“How is that even possible?”

“It just is. Don’t try to figure it out.”

“But –”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

Peter looked up at her and smiled brightly.

“I’m a foreigner. Cut me some slack.”

“You’re from Canada.”

“Still counts. As one of my only friends, it’s your responsibility to teach me about this strange land.”

“What about Ned?”

“He’s not around. Please.” He practically begged. “In the one week I’ve been here, I haven’t gone anywhere fun. Don’t you have any places you like to go to?”

MJ stopped in her tracks and turned to Peter.

“Outside the school. Six o’clock. I’ll show you around then.”

“O-okay. Nice. But I really should ask May and Ben first.”

“They’ll say yes.” She responded without a second thought. “I was telling you, not asking by the way. And you can skip eating. I usually get something to eat then.”

So, she tells you you’re going to some place in the city with her. And she’s practically saying you’ll be having dinner.

‘Did MJ just ask me out on a date, or am I just going crazy?’


	8. Heights

Peter was certain that this was more than just a silly crush. He wasn’t really sure if wanting to be romantically involved with MJ was different than a crush, but that was the conclusion he had come to.

It wasn’t something that he could explain. But being around MJ, even for a single second, made his day so much better. And now, he’d finally get a chance to be close to her. Without having to be in school. The walk to the gas station was great, but it didn’t last long enough.

Peter didn’t tell May or Ben about MJ. Or that they were hanging out tonight. However, Ben was probably able to figure it out, given the talk they had on the way home from the vet.

He was good at asking questions. And was even better at getting answers. Ben also brought up the story about how he met aunt May. Completely coincidental.

Peter was walking to the front of the school like MJ had told him to. He found her sitting on the steps just as she had when they first met.

Did he really call her ‘miss’?!

You did. Congratulations, moron. You embarrassed yourself before she even knew you!

Whatever. It’s not that big a deal. She still wanted to hang out with you tonight.

He kept wondering if he was a little bit underdressed. He was wearing his usual clothes along with a red hoodie.

MJ stood up and picked her backpack up from the ground.

“H-hey.” She greeted nervously.

This obviously went straight over Peter’s head. He was completely clueless to the fact she liked him just as much as he liked her.

Okay, definitely not underdressed. MJ’s style wasn’t that far off from his. A regular pair of her dark jeans, a flannel, but no hoodie. Thank God. But this time, her hair wasn’t tied up in a bun. I flowed down to her shoulders and covered part of her face.

She was beautiful.

“Hi.” Peter blushed. “So, uh… where are we going?”

“You’ll see. Come on.”

MJ stated to walk off down the sidewalk with Peter beside her.

“How far away is this place?”

“Just a few blocks. How do you feel about heights?”

Heights? What kind of place would involve heights?

“They’re not bad. But I am afraid of dying.”

“Good. Me too.”

That was a complete lie. He’d never been up high before in his entire life. But there was no way he was going to let her know that.

Peter was pretty sure that they would be going up on some building. It was the only thing that made sense. There weren’t any skyscrapers back home. He couldn’t even remember a building that was taller than two stories.

It wasn’t exactly a fear of heights. It was more of an inexperience with them. He was afraid that he would actually be afraid. That’s a thing, right?

Whatever. Just try not to freak out. And make sure that she doesn’t notice if you do.

The two stopped in front of an extremely tall building. Peter looked up to the top and gulped.

“This is my favourite place to go to.”

His heart began to beat faster. And not just because he was close to her.

“What’s uh, what’s inside?”

MJ shrugged.

“No idea. I never really payed attention to that. I always go to the top.”

And flatline.

“C-cool.”

Peter and MJ went through the revolving door, making their way to the elevator.

“How tall is this building?”

“About forty stories.” She smiled.

He nervously tapped his hand on his leg as the elevator ascended.

Okay, you rode an elevator for the first time. Not bad. You can do this.

They stepped out into the hallway and MJ led him to the stairwell.

There were a few birds nesting on the roof, which gave Peter some comfort. He liked birds. But all that went out the window when he realized how high off the ground they were.

“Can I ask a question?’

“You just did.” She quipped.

“Right. Sorry.”

“It was a joke, loser.”

“O-okay. Sorry. Why do you like coming up here?”

MJ went over to the ledge and sat upon it. Appearing not to care about falling.

“It’s nice and quiet. You can see everything for miles.”

How much is a mile? How many meters were there in a mile? Or kilometers? This made no sense.

And why did they say ‘zee’ instead of ‘zed’?

One problem at a time, Peter! Right now, you should be focusing on ignoring the deathly height that you’re currently at.

Just focus on something else. MJ! She’s not freaking out, so why should you? God, she’s beautiful. Focus on that you lovesick moron!

Peter hesitantly went over to the ledge and sat next to her. Their feet were dangling in the air, being brushed by the cool breeze.

MJ reached into her backpack and pulled out a plastic bag.

“Have you ever heard of this deli near the school called Delmar’s? Best sandwiches in Queens. I hope you don’t mind, but I got you chicken, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise.”

She handed him a sandwich that was wrapped in tinfoil. It was still warm.

“How’d you know what my favourite sandwich was?”

MJ pushed her hair away from her eye, staring at him.

“You have the same thing for lunch everyday. I kind of assumed.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

Peter’s hands were shaking slightly, and she took notice.

“You don’t like heights, do you? That wasn’t a question, by the way. I know you don’t.”

“N-no. I-I’m not… scared. I just… never been up this high before. But it’s fine. I just need a distraction.”

“What do you usually do?”

Watch you.

Not in a creepy way. But it made him feel safe being around her.

“Nothing really. I’ll be fine.”

MJ reached over and he felt her hand grab onto his. The two just sat there in silence, looking off into the distance.

After a few minutes, Peter saw that there were goosebumps appearing on her arms, and she was starting to shiver.

He let go of her hand ad zipped off his hoodie, placing it around her shoulders.

She immediately handed it back to him.

“Thanks. But I don’t need it. You’ll get too cold.”

“You ARE cold. And I’m from Canada. This is nothing for me.”

MJ reluctantly took it back, and zipped it on around herself.

“Thanks, Peter.”


	9. Sisters

MJ and Peter stopped in front of her home, inches between them.

She was able to work up the courage to at least hold his hand tonight, so she might as well do this now. Just don’t make it weird.

MJ had never hugged anyone other than her parents or grandparents. But never dreamed of hugging a boy. That is, until she met Peter. She wanted to hold him. Be close to him.

Her heart began to beat faster as she leaned in, wrapping her arms around him. After a few moments, Peter did the same.

“Goodnight.” She whispered in his ear.

MJ felt as if she was going to explode on the inside. If someone had told her two weeks ago that she would meet a boy who she would not only like, a lot, and be doing this with him, she would have told them they were crazy, delusional, and maybe hit them in the head with a mace. If only she knew where she could find a mace.

But back to the point. MJ felt happier now than she ever did before. It wasn’t a kiss like she would have preferred. But that wasn’t a big deal. She really cared about him, and this was enough.

The two pulled away from each other smiling awkwardly.

MJ zipped off his red hoodie, and tried to hand it back.

“You can keep it.”

“A-are you sure?”

“Yep. I-it looks good on you.”

His face began to blush, adding colour to his already rosy cheeks.

“O-okay. Thanks.” MJ pulled the hoodie back on and smiled at him. “So, I’ll see you Monday?”

“Yeah. Definitely.”

MJ walked up to her door, and before she could close it, she could swear that she heard him speak again.

“You look really pretty.” He said softly under his breath.

It may have been her imagination. Only something she hoped she heard. But it meant the world to her if it was real.

MJ pressed her forehead against the front door and sighed longingly.

Unfortunately, as usual, Jane had to ruin the moment.

“Sooooo. How was your date?”

MJ ignored her and started to make her way to her room with her sister close behind.

“It wasn’t a date. Just shut up.”

She slammed the door which was immediately reopened by Jane. She jumped onto her bed and curled up in a ball.

“Right. Of course not. A boy and a girl who like each other go out and do something together at night. That’s not what a date is!”

“He doesn’t like me the same way I do.”

“Are you, or are you not you wearing his hoodie right now?”

MJ was currently clutching on to said hoodie as if her life depended on it.

“It doesn’t mean anything. He’s nice to everyone.”

“Guys don’t give their hoodies to girls they don’t like! Not even their friends! You asked him to hang out tonight, he didn’t say no, he gave you his worn-out hoodie, probably to keep you warm, and hugged you! You’re supposed to be the smart one!”

“I AM the smart one. And how did you know we hugged?”

“I was watching from the window.” She responded casually. “He was giving you puppy dog eyes the whole time. And that’s basically the equivalent of bedroom eyes for people your age. I know you hate getting close to people and it’s not easy being in love for the first time. But it definitely meant something. And he likes you in the exact same way as you do.”

MJ wished that it could be true. She wasn’t entirely sure if what Jane said was accurate, but she knew that one part was. She was in love with Peter, and it definitely wasn’t easy.

“Even if he did, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

Jane sat on the bed with MJ and started to rub her head.

“No one does. It’s not like someone wrote a book on it.”

It felt relaxing to have her sister being here. For once.

“Have you ever been in love?”

Jane let out a deep breath.

“I have.”

“… how did it end?”

A small smile spread to her face.

“It hasn’t. I just… kind of know what you’re going through right now.”

MJ crawled under the blanket, and Jane joined, continuing to comfort her sister.

“Who is he?”

“If you’re going to ask me questions about my love life, you’d better start talking about yours. Promise.”

“Fine. Now go.”

Maybe talking about feelings weren’t so bad. Only when they weren’t being used to embarrass you or ruin your life.

“HE is actually a SHE.”

“But you –”

“I like both, okay? Anyway, her name’s Elena and she goes to my school. I’d do something, but I’m not sure if she plays for the same team. Know what I’m saying?”

“So, neither of us are going to go for it because we’re not sure if they like us?”

“No. That’s just me. Peter likes you, and I know it. For someone who watches him constantly and keeps a literal book that contains every detail about him, you’re pretty oblivious.”

MJ scoffed.

“Not EVERY detail.”

“God knows less about him than you do. It’s sweet. Kind of creepy too. But still sweet.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Isn’t there some way you could figure out if Elena’s gay? Like gaydar from The Office.”

“That was just a metal detector.”

“I said something LIKE that. What’s she like?”

“Nope. You have to talk about Peter before I answer any more questions. How do feel about him?”

MJ sighed, staring at the ceiling.

“I want to hold him, be close to him, keep him all to myself, spend all my time with him, and maybe… give him a little kiss.”

“I’d say you sound like a sociopath and super possessive, but let me just clarify something. What do you mean by keep him all to yourself?”

“The usual. He’s been beaten up a few times, so if he’s just with me, he can always be safe. Peter doesn’t deserve to get hurt.”

She at least got to hold him for a minute. For now, she would have to settle for the hoodie.


	10. More Plans

MJ sighed, watching Peter from afar as he was talking to Ned. One of the things she prided herself on, other than her observation skills, was her hearing. She listened closely, picking up every word with ease while writing down anything useful he said. MJ was of course ignoring Ned. Whatever he was saying came out as nonsense. She was also good a tuning people out.

The conversation didn’t make much sense due to the one-sided sentences, but she was getting some good information out of it.  
MJ had leaned that he was having some trouble passing the time at home. Working on a farm always have him something to do. But no farm, meant no work. Peter was also going crazy because of the lack of snow. It came a little later down here, and his entire year was getting thrown off. She made a note to try to spend time with him once snow finally came.

They hadn’t really spent any quality time together since that night on the roof. It was her own fault.

And partly Ned’s.

As soon as they got back on Monday, he and Peter were once again inseparable. She didn’t dislike him, but he was starting to get on her nerves a little.

People should have more respect when you’re secretly pining over someone. Still no plan to get rid of him. It would become easier once she would be comfortable around more than one person. It was always part of her plan. But not for a while.

The murder scenarios kept getting more complicated and detailed. Every time Ned got in her way. Every time Flash was a dick to Peter or anyone else. Or other people in general.

As soon as the final bell rang, MJ quickly stood up from her chair while putting her notebook back in her bag. She pulled up her hood while placing her hands in the pockets of Peter’s hoodie. Yep. She was still wearing it. And there was no way she would take it off.

Outside of the school, MJ hopped into Jane’s car.

“So, how was school?”

“Boring.” She responded without skipping a beat. “You see that guy over there walking with Peter?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you please run him over for me?”

Anyone else would have thought this as a very strange request. However, since they grew up in the same house, it was quite normal for the two of them.

“He’s the guy who keeps getting in the way, right?”

“I just want one week without him so I can be with Peter! Is that too much to ask?!”

MJ crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat with a huff.

“I’m not running him over.”

“If you loved me, you would.”

“That’s not how love works. And you’d be caught. What happened to getting away with it?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Unless you can help me give him a sickness that would cause him to be away from school for a week, this is my only option. Screw human decency.”

“Love makes you crazy. And I mean crazier than before.”

MJ stared at Ned with a murderous look in her eyes.

“What if I kidnapped Peter?”

“No.”

“Damn it.”

Jane started to drive off back home. And much to her sister’s dismay, she avoided hitting anyone.

“I just want him to kiss me.”

“I thought you just wanted one week without Ned so you could be with Peter.”

“That part was implied! Just one little kiss! Then we can be together, hold hands, cuddle, all that good shit.”

“Language!”

“Thanks, Captain America.”

MJ always hated those stupid videos. Detention, health class, cursing, when some bitch gets their feelings hurt just a little bit over something stupid. People needed to toughen up. Jane knew how awful those things were. And now that she was out of high school, she kept bringing them up as a form of torture.

“I’m tired of seeing you like this. All you do is stare at him, daydream, and you don’t even plan on asking him out. These things don’t just fall into place.”

“They do in a few of my books.”

“Life isn’t a book.”

“But it would be so much more enjoyable if it was. Then I could just skip to the end and find out what happens.”

“But you’d miss everything that comes in the middle. You’re only thirteen.”

“And I turn fourteen in a few months. I’ve lived a pretty full life already. Who cares if I fast-forward seventy years or so?”

“I do. If that makes a difference.”

“It doesn’t. You’ll be long gone by then.”

“I’m kind of scared to ask what’s going through your head.”

“You’re going to hear it anyway.” MJ took in a deep breath. “You’re going to die in 2071, the day before you turn seventy-six.”

“I died so young.”

“And you aged pretty damn well. Luke has finally graduated high school. Angela and Ryan are living in houses side by side, since they’re still inseparable. Emma has finalized her fifth divorce with some poor jackass she tricked.”

“What makes you think that?”

“She’s sixteen and goes through boyfriends left and right. We’re lucky if it stops at five.”

“True.”

“But she’s rich and gives us tons of expensive books, so it’s fine.”

“No one in the family but you loves books.”

“Don’t worry. She gives you stuff you like too. Whatever that is. By that time, Peter and I will have been married for a few decades.”

“I say again, you’re only thirteen!”

“I didn’t mean now! I’m not insane. We’ll get married after university and have a small wedding because people are crap. Not to mention that it’s a waste of money. At least four kids. Three girls, one boy. Either we got a place in a nice, quiet neighborhood here, or moved up to Canada. I’m flexible on that part. Every other parent is terrified of me because they think I’m a vampire. I started that rumour. And finally, we spend our sunset years with our grandkids. I’m betting on a dozen of them. And we die peacefully in our sleep.”

“You’ve thought about all of that?”

“Wrong. I planned all of that. Much like the rest of my perfectly masterminded plans, it’ll work out. I’m currently on step three of two thousand one hundred and fifty-four.”

“Which is…?”

“Pine over him hopelessly until step four comes along. Which is being there for him every time he gets beaten up. Step five is he slowly starts to fall in love with me.”

“He’s already there.”

MJ sighed deeply.

“I wish. Step six is him becoming obsessed with me just like I am with him.”


	11. Peter-book

Peter spat out blood on the ground, wiping the remainder away with is sleeve. Weakly getting up off the floor, he raised his fists, preparing for another hit from Flash and his gang.

It was probably one of the stupidest things he’d ever done. And that was saying a lot, given the amount of stupid stuff he’d done in his thirteen years on the planet.

But Ben always told him that if he ever got knocked down, he should always pick himself back up. Peter was taking that saying a little too literally at the moment.

He wanted to make his uncle proud.

Peter swung at Flash’s face, causing him to stumble back. His minor success was short-lived as he immediately thrown back on the ground by the others.

He readjusted his glasses which was becoming broken at the bridge. It was either that there was something wrong with the lenses, or his vision was starting to darken.

Holding onto his stomach, Peter felt as if he was about to puke.

Flash kicked him in the ribs, causing him to fall flat on his face.

They weren’t letting him get back up, no matter how many times he tried. Peter was going to keep trying until he couldn’t anymore. That point was getting closer and closer by the second.

Peter used his hands to hold himself up, coughing violently. He received a blow to the back of the head, causing him to get knocked back down again. But this time he just layed there with his eyes closed, unconscious.

 

 

Peter woke up sitting on the ground with his back against the lockers. As his hearing began to return, he focused on the voice that was next to him.

“’Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. Uh, what does it tell you, Holmes?’. ‘Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!’.”

The voice was reading from one of his favourite books. Peter’s vision became clearer, and he slowly looked over next to him.

MJ was holding her book open with one hand, while the other was clutching tightly onto his own hand. She stopped reading once she noticed that he was now conscious.

Kneeling in front of him while running her hands through his hair softly, she looked at Peter with a worried expression.

“How are you feeling?”

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Just the sound of a scratchy, faint noise.

“Hold on.”

MJ grabbed a bottle of water from her backpack and held it up to his lips. As the water went down, he cleared his throat, now able to speak.

“I’ve been better.”

His voice still came out somewhat hoarse.

“I found you down the hall. You weren’t doing so good. But the good news is that you don’t have a concussion, surprisingly, and you still have all your teeth. No broken bones.”

“Thanks.”

She brushed his cheek lightly.

“Does it hurt?”

“Not really. How bad is it?”

“You have a black eye, a couple of cuts on your cheek, and a few bruises, especially on your ribcage. I cleaned you up as best I could, and I thought I’d read to you a little.”

Peter gave her a weak smile.

“Thanks, MJ. What time is it?”

She looked down at her watch, then back up at him.

“Three thirty.”

“In the morning?!”

“No, dork. You weren’t out for that long.”

“Oh… right. Sorry.”

MJ sat back down next to Peter, and he tiredly rested his head on her shoulder, yawning.

In a few short seconds, he was asleep again.

MJ sighed happily, pulling him closer while her hand latched onto his. She closed his hand around her own, and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Peter was unaware of what just occurred, but if he was, he would have been over the moon.

“You can’t hear me, right?” She asked, making sure he was really asleep.

No response.

“Good. So… I like you. I REALLY like you.” MJ smiled. “Why can’t you be asleep all the time? I know you can’t answer that because you’re asleep, but still. You know I draw you? Like, all the time. Sometimes I put myself there too. God, I’d love to show you them. But it’s hard, you know? I’m telling you how I feel only because you can’t hear me. So, how could I even show you the drawings?”

Peter’s head shifted on her shoulder, but he wasn’t waking up.

“Welp, it looks like we’re going to be here for a while. Not that I’m complaining. Believe me, I’ve spent a lot of nights thinking about being close to you like this. Preferably, you wouldn’t have been beaten up or unconscious. But it is what it is. It feels really good to get these feelings out. I have my ways at home. Sometimes I just scream into my pillow because you drive me crazy. It’s nice to talk about it with you.”

MJ reached into her backpack and pulled out her sketchbook, her notebook, and her newly dubbed ‘Peter-book’.

“There’s no harm in showing you these now. What do you want first? Murder scenarios? Drawings? Facts about you?”

She paused for a moment, before holding up one of the books.

“Facts about you! Who knows? You might learn a thing or two.”

MJ opened her ‘Peter-book’ to the first page and started reading it out.

“Peter Benjamin Parker. Born June 2nd, 2001. Blood type O-. Parents, Richard and Mary Parker, died on April 17th, 2005 in a plane crash. Only relatives are your uncle, Ben Parker and your aunt, May Parker. Bla, bla, bla. You already know that.”

She flipped the next page quickly, reading it over.

“Maybe this will be better. You own seven different flannels, all with the same pattern. Two red, two blue, one green, one orange, and one grey. I’d organize it so you wear your second favourite on Monday’s, least favourite Tuesdays and so on, until Friday, when you wear your favourite. Obviously the red one. The second red you should save for Sundays. The clean one. Can’t have you looking like a slob at church. You own two pairs of the same jeans, which you alternate daily. Don’t think I didn’t notice. People always give you hell for ‘wearing the same clothes everyday’, but I want you to know that you look good no matter what. After that, it’s pretty straight forward. Twenty-one science pun t-shirts, fourteen pairs of socks, and fourteen pairs of boxers. It’s not important how I know that.”

MJ looked over see that Peter was breathing deeply while he rested.

“I think you should take Jeremy out on a walk tonight instead of tomorrow morning. It’s probably going to rain, and then your house would smell like wet dog. I can’t believe you actually like that smell. But I get it. I grew up around a lot of animals too. And you should probably know that Thanksgiving is coming up soon. I thought I should remind you, since Canadians celebrate in October. I’d invite you and your family over to my place, but they know about you. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

She closed the ‘Peter-book’, and picked up her sketchbook.

“Now… let’s see what kind of details I can add to my drawings.”


	12. Sharing is Caring

“You got into a fight?!” Ben cried.

Peter sat in his room with Ben examining his face. The black eye and the cuts weren’t exactly easy to hide from him. And MJ had put tape one the bridge of his glasses to stop them from breaking.

“Well… it depends on how you define ‘fight’. If –”

“Not the time for sarcasm, Peter. Just answer the question.”

Peter sighed in defeat.

“Yeah. I did get into a fight. But I’m okay! So, it’s not really that big a deal. And you got into fights all the time!”

“Wrong. I got my ass handed to me.”

“So did I!”

Ben glared at his nephew.

“Is that supposed to make it better?”

He paused for a moment before answering.

“Does it?”

“No.” He said sternly. “I get that you had to defend yourself. But at some point, you just need to know when to give up. I would have gotten hurt a lot less if I knew that. Why did you even do that?”

“I was just trying to be like you.” Peter whispered under his breath.

No matter how many awful things Ben had seen during his time in the army, he always spoke of it with pride. That there was a sense of community there. It didn’t matter who you were there or where you came from. All that mattered was you were there to serve your country and protect the people in it.

Peter idolized his uncle because of it.

How could he not want to be like Ben?

“You don’t want to be like me. You CAN and WILL be better. You have a brain. Use it. Don’t put yourself in danger.”

“But you did.”

“So that other people didn’t have to. Just promise me, here and now, that you won’t get into another fight.”

That was something he couldn’t do. Knowing Flash, he wasn’t going to stop starting these things. Helping out Ned on the first day of school sealed his fate. And he couldn’t stop, because if it wasn’t him, it was going to be someone else. But there wasn’t any reason that Ben had to know that.

“I promise.”

His uncle ruffled his hair, and stood up.

“Good. Get some rest. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

“Night, Ben.”

“Night, Peter. We’ll see you tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow night?” Peter asked.

“May has an early shift at the hospital tomorrow. And my shifts were moved around because of the police academy. I’m really sorry, Peter.”

“It’s fine. I’ll miss you guys.”

“Us too. We love you.”

As his door closed, he tried his best to fall asleep.

 

 

A couple of hours later, Peter layed awake in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He had only been thinking about one thing since he got home.

‘So… I like you. I REALLY like you.’

Peter was trying to figure out if it was real or not. He was sure that it had to be a dream. But part of it felt so real.

He didn’t hear anything after she supposedly said those words. Maybe he was just hearing what he wanted to hear. And at the time, he was recently knocked out, received several blows to the head, and was on the brink of passing out.

If Peter was going to look at this the way he wanted, it was real. If he was going to look at this logically, it was nothing more than a dream.

Right now, it was too difficult to think about.

Peter slid out of bed, grabbing a jacket from off the floor along with his worn-out pair of shoes. Putting both of them on quickly, he made his way over to his window.

Sneaking out was never something he did. And this probably wasn’t going to go the way he expected. But he wasn’t going to be able to sleep until he did this.

Peter dropped down into the driveway quietly, and looked down at his watch.

Ten forty-five pm.

They wouldn’t come up to check on him all night long. He was in the clear.

Peter jogged down the sidewalk, trying to speed up the travel. MJ’s house wasn’t that far away, so at this rate, he would be there in about fifteen minutes. The street lights illuminated the area allowing him to see.

He was used to the cold temperature, so it didn’t appear to be that bad. It felt like home.

Peter wasn’t going to talk to her about the whole thing that may or may not have occurred. If it didn’t, he’d just embarrass himself. He just wanted to see her. Even if it was just for a second. The only problem in his otherwise perfect, and normal plan, was that he didn’t know what room she was in.

He was going to knock on her window, but her house was huge!

There were eight people in that place. One of which was MJ. She could be in any one of them.

Was this a bad idea? Now that he thought it through, there was a small chance it wasn’t perfect.

But, whatever. He was still injured, kind of sleep deprived, and missed MJ. Peter’s judgement wasn’t exactly stellar at the moment.

And when you’re more than halfway there, it seems kind of pointless to go back home.

Peter came to a stop on MJ’s corner, taking a moment to catch his breath.

He started walking down the sidewalk with his eyes fixed on her house. One of the lights on the upper floor was turned on, and he could clearly see MJ through the window.

She was sitting on her bed while wearing his hoodie, drawing something in her sketchbook.

“That was surprisingly easy.” Peter said to himself.

He used to climb things all the time back home. Getting up to her window shouldn’t be that hard.

Peter grabbed onto the drainpipe, pulling himself up towards the top of the garage. He swung his legs onto the roof of the garage, standing up straight.

He then jumped up to grab the main part of the roof, pulling himself up again. Peter crawled up the side on an angle, coming to MJ’s window.

Tapping lightly on the glass to get her attention, her eyes remained glued to her notebook, lost in her thoughts.

“MJ.” He whispered, tapping louder.

MJ’s head shot up, clearly shocked by his presence.

She shut her sketchbook quickly and threw it under the bed before coming to the window.

“What are you doing here?”

Her voice wasn’t angry as a normal person would have been. It was actually soft. Filled with curiosity.

“Well, I was in the neighborhood.” He smiled. “And I thought: Hey! That’s MJ’s place! Why don’t I drop on by?”

“Get in.”

She helped him in through the window, which wasn’t difficult, given his small frame.

MJ’s room wasn’t that different from what he expected. Piles, and piles of books in every place they could fit. Her bed was just in the corner, and her desk was up against the wall. It was simple, but everything about it just screamed ‘MJ’.

“Sorry for coming over this late. I should probably go.”

“No!” She responded a little too quickly. “I mean… y-you can stay if you want.”

“O-okay. Cool.”

“Cool.”

MJ sat back down on her bed, gesturing next to her.

“Do you want to sit down?”

“Sure.”

Peter nervously sat next to her, crossing his legs.

He wanted to ask what the hell she was drawing in the sketchbook. But it wasn’t any of his business. It wouldn’t do him any good to pry.

“So… what are you really doing here? Not that I’m complaining! I’m just… curious.”

“I couldn’t sleep. You know. Thinking about stuff. How about you? Any reason you’re up so late?”

“Same here. Just thinking about stuff.” MJ pushed her hair behind her ear. “Are you doing anything tomorrow?”

Peter remembered Ben’s words. He was in for a very boring Saturday.

“N-no. Ben and May are going to be gone all day.”

“Do you maybe want to… stay here? It’s pretty late, a-and I’d feel bad if you went home and got murdered by an axe wielding maniac or something.”

That was an awfully specific idea.

“Okay.” Peter nodded. “I can take the floor.”

“We could share my bed if you want. It’s big enough for the two of us. And you probably need it more than I do.”

He could tell from the look in her eyes that she really meant it. And it wasn’t that big a deal. That’s what normal friends did. Right?

“If you say so.”


	13. Singing and Dogs

“Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight. I need help believing you’re with me tonight. My wildest dreams could not foresee lying beside you with you wanting me.”

As hard as it was to admit to herself, MJ loved to sing. She never did it in front of another person. And yet, her she was, lying next to Peter, actually doing it.

He was sound asleep, obviously.

MJ wanted to keep it that way. Singing was the first thing that came to mind.

She could just stare at him forever, running her hands through his mess of curls. It was the best thing that could have possibly happened. She couldn’t have planned this better even if she wanted to. Peter showing up at her window late at night was like something out of one of her books.

“And just for this moment, as long as you're mine. I've lost all resistance and crossed some border line. And if it turns out It's over too fast, I'll make every last moment last. As long as you're mine.”

MJ continued to sing softly in Peter’s ear. There was a hint of a smile on his face that made her melt inside.

Step one hundred and twelve of her master plan, in which the endgame was getting married and having children, was for him to confess his feelings to her. She now had a good feeling that they were heading in that direction. After step six, where he became obsessed with her, there were many points she had to go through. Carefully planting the seeds which would cause him to tell her how he feels.

MJ didn’t exactly have the courage to make the first move. But she knew that he would tell her himself. Only when he was ready.  
If all went accordingly, and it would, due to her many backup plans, they would be together within the next three years. Or in one thousand one hundred and thirty-seven days. December twenty-fourth to be exact. It may or may not involve mistletoe.

MJ had made a few rough calculations in her head based on what she already knew about him. His thought process would be controlled thanks to the actions she would perform until then.

Was this a little too much effort?

Absolutely not! It was the greatest thrill in the world now that this plan was for love. A close second was making Luke and Emma willingly confess to mom and dad about stealing the car that one time. Morons.

“Maybe I'm brainless, maybe I'm wise. But you've got me seeing through different eyes. Somehow I've fallen under your spell. And somehow I'm feeling it's up that I fell.”

“You have a really pretty voice.” Peter stated with a groggy voice.

MJ stopped the movement of her hands and her eyes widened.

“H-how long have you been awake for?”

“Just for that one verse.” He responded with his eyes still closed. “Where’d you hear that from?”

Shit! Think! Think! Think! Make sure it’s something he can’t read into.

“My sister kept playing it yesterday. It really got stuck in my head.”

Please believe me! Please believe me!

“Oh. Cool.”

MJ let out a sigh of relief, and slid out of her bed. Peter just remained there, laying on his front.

“Are you getting up?”

“Uh… y-yeah. My, uh… legs are asleep.”

“Okay.” She shrugged. “I’ll be back in a second.”

MJ was good at understanding things. And based on the biology books she had read to better understand herself, and Peter, there was something that tended to happen when males wake up from their slumber.

It wasn’t disgusting or bad or anything like that. It was completely natural, and she understood that. But she would be lying if she didn’t say she was curious. That would just have to wait.

Stepping out of her room, MJ stopped in her tracks once she saw Jane at the end of the hall. It would be the end of the world if she discovered that Peter was in her room. In her bed. After just spending the night.

“Morning, Michelle.” She yawned.

MJ closed her door quickly.

“Jane! What’s up?!”

She was hoping that if she talked loud enough, Peter would take the hint, and regrettably, head back home before Jane figured it out.

“No need to shout. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! You know, my quiet voice has just gone OUT THE WINDOW!”

MJ backed up against her door so he couldn’t get out, or nobody could get in.

Jane raised her eyebrows at her sister.

“What’s going on? Is something in your room?”

“Nope! Nothing is in my room right now! Just books, clothes, and furniture! Nothing else is in there!”

Peter jumped out of the bed quietly, making his way over to the window. Balancing on the angle of the roof, he looked down to see MJ’s parents getting in their car.

Taking in a deep breath, Peter backed up to get a running start.

As MJ and Jane entered her bedroom, he ran up to the ledge and jumped across to the opposite roof of the house.

“See.” MJ said, crossing her arms. “Nothing’s in here.”

“Then why’s the window open?”

Peter dropped down onto the deck in the backyard, out of the view of Jane and MJ.

The two stuck their heads out the window, looking down the street.

“Because I like the cold weather.”

“Hmm. Okay.”

MJ’s parents pulled out of the driveway, while the sisters closed the window and left her bedroom.

“What the hell are you doing on my property?!”

He turned around quickly to see a rather elderly woman holding a baseball bat, glaring at him.

“Uh…”

“You’re trying to rob me, aren’t you?!”

“N-no! I swear! This isn’t what it looks like!”

“Johnny! Robbie! Get out here!”

The sound of dogs barking violently echoed inside the house. And they were getting closer.

“Oh crap!”

Peter bolted down the deck stairs onto the grass with the woman and the two Rottweilers chasing after him. He jumped over the fence of the other neighbor, losing the woman. But the dogs still kept coming.

“Nice dogs! Please don’t eat me!” He cried. “I taste horrible! And I’ll give you indigestion!”

He turned the corner, heading for the street. Somehow, outrunning these things. Peter closed the wooden gate behind him, trapping ‘Johnny’ and ‘Robbie’ in the yard.

“Oh my God.” He breathed heavily. “That was crazy.”


	14. Grandparents

Ned walked into his room, leaving the light off as he was about to go to sleep. Walking quietly on the old, creaky floor trying not to wake up the rest of the household that consisted of his parents and his sister.

Just as the door closed behind him, his lamp turned on, illuminating the chair in the corner and the person who sat in it.

A chill was sent down Ned’s spine. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He just stood in the middle of his room, petrified with fear.

MJ stared down at her notebook, crossing something off from one of the many pages.

“One minute and forty-four seconds.” She stated casually, not meeting his gaze. “This wasn’t ideal, Leeds. But you didn’t exactly leave me with much of a choice. And when you come up with so many scenarios, sometimes you just want to end it. Honestly, I was considering buying a new notebook just for you. What a waste that would have been. ‘Leeds-book’ doesn’t exactly have as good a ring to it as ‘Peter-book’. One minute and nineteen seconds left.”

“H… h-how… w-why…?” Ned stuttered.

“Your lock was easy to pick. Your parents were too busy with your sister to notice someone else in your house. Nice people, by the way. I’d feel bad for them if you hadn’t been ruining my life. Then again, if you hadn’t been ruining my life, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. One of the side-effects is loss of speech, so you’d better listen closely.”

He nodded quickly in response, not moving from his place.

“Good. Fifty seconds. This’ll have to be quick. As you know, I don’t spend time around people. It’s not because I hate them. I just prefer to be alone. That is, until I met Peter.” MJ sighed happily. “I’d love to go on and on about everything I love about that adorable dork, but then we’d be here all day. Point is, ever since I’ve met him, I’ve been trying to spend some quality alone time with him. And that’s been proving difficult because of you."

MJ's knuckles cracked as she gripped tightly onto her notebook, cleary furious at Ned.

"I can’t spend time with him when you two are joined at the hip. But now, with you gone, we can finally be together.”

Ned tried to speak again, but it came out as nonsense. But MJ could tell that it was ‘gone?’.

“Ten seconds. I gave you a very subtle poison. And another mess of crap that would give you the symptoms of a heart attack. It won’t even be considered as murder.”

MJ climbed out the window, peeking her head back in as she hung off from the ledge.

“I’ll see you in the afterlife, Leeds. No hard feelings?”

As MJ landed in the driveway, Ned collapsed to the floor. She smiled contently, walking down the sidewalk.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Jane lightly nudged her with her elbow.

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been staring at the wall for a while. Are you good?”

“Damn it.”

Okay. Maybe there was a tiny, little, bite-sized chance that she was getting desperate. MJ was never actually going to murder Leeds. Only dream about it. But she had been feeling kind of murdery lately.

“Are you good?” Jane asked again.

“Yeah, yeah.” MJ groaned. “Just dandy.”

In the past hour, she had mentally murdered Ned, Flash, her math teacher, her mom’s receptionist, her family doctor, destroyed the school, broken into Avengers Tower, and married Peter. It had been a very productive hour.

But all that had amounted to nothing but frustration.

Especially the Peter part. She loved being honest, but she was afraid to do that with Peter. If she wasn’t, there wouldn’t be a need for her complex plan to get him to be the one to confess.

MJ closed her eyes, attempting to go back into her fantasy world. Possibly something that didn’t involve her future husband. Not directly at least.

Although, there was a plan in her notebook that she’d been meaning to put into effect for a while. And it wasn’t illegal. Just a friendly trip. But she would have to take Jane with her. There was no way she could leave for the entire weekend without anyone noticing.

Flipping to the page, MJ started to read out the plan in her head.

They would get two train tickets to Manitoba, and bring their passports for when they get to the border.

Peter’s grandparents still lived up there. MJ thought it would be a good idea to pay them a visit since he talked about them an awful lot. Nothing wrong with getting to know the family a little.

MJ already had the address, along with the standard information about them.

Henry James Parker. Age ninety. Immigrated to Canada from England after the World War II. Served in the British Armed Forces and the SSR where he met his future sister-in-law, Margaret Elizabeth Carter.

Mary Emily Parker. Formerly Mary Emily Carter. Age eight-nine. Immigrated to Canada from England after the World War II. SSR scientist, and was part of the program that created Captain America.

It’s weird what you can learn from history books, immigration records, Peter’s rambling, the internet, and sealed government files.

MJ was hoping to get some inside information on Peter. Maybe learn specifically about his early childhood. Human beings form sentimental attachments as they grow up. Peter to his grandparents, Star Wars, comic books, etc.

With a little bit of work, paired with the knowledge of those attachments, romantic feelings could easily become associated with MJ in his mind.

Part of the reason was Peter. The other part was genuine interest.

MJ was curious why Mary would help create the thing responsible for those crappy videos she had to endure every week. But she was supposedly one of the smartest women in the world. Even with her advanced age.

But back to Peter.

This was about him. It had occurred to MJ that some other girl could potentially see how great he was. Those stealing bitches didn’t stand a chance. If you’re not willing to go to another country to talk to your future husbands’ grandparents to find out important moments of his life in order to use them to speed up the process of him falling in love with you, do you even care about him at all?

Obviously not!

MJ opened her eyes, getting Jane’s attention.

“Pack your bags. We’re going to Canada.”


	15. Sharon

“We’re not going to Canada!” Jane cried.

MJ didn’t listen to her sister, continuing to fill her bag with the essentials. A few dozen of her notebooks, her passport, and a spare change of clothes that included a winter jacket.

“Michelle!” She tried again, now grabbing her attention.

“What?”

“We’re not going to Canada!”

“Did I not just say ‘Pack your bags. We’re going to Canada’?”

Jane crossed her arms, glaring at MJ.

“You have about ten seconds to explain just what the hell is going through your head. Go.”

“We’re going to Canada to meet with Peter’s grandparents to find out about his childhood attachments so they can be applied to me and speed up the process of him falling hopelessly in love with me.”

She closed her eyes in frustration before shouting back at MJ.

“He already loves you! And you’re obsessed with him! It’s not healthy!”

MJ only shrugged in response.

“I’m totally obsessed with him. Not denying that. Is there a point to this, or are you wasting my time?”

“The point is, you’re going batshit crazy!”

Keeping a notebook of facts on the love of your life. Drawing him at least once a day. Planning the murders of people who are in the way of you getting together. Using psychology to speed up the process. Planning out your perfect life as a couple. Already reading up on ways to control the gender of your child and the easiest way to conceive. Creating accurate drawings of what your future kids would look like.

“Say what you want. I’m perfectly sane.”

“But it’s the beginning of December! It’ll be freezing!”

“Hence the reason for the winter jacket. -20 degrees Fahrenheit is bearable. I’m not going to rest until he’s obsessed with me!”

Jane started rubbing her temples, groaning.

“Canada is out. That’s final. And it’s humanly impossible for Peter to be as obsessed with you as you are with him. You’re perfect for each other, but no one can match your crazy.”

 

 

Peter never really met much of his family. His parents were gone, and had no direct cousins. On his mother’s side, they all passed away. On his father’s side, they all lived back in England or Canada. Aunt Peggy he visited as often as possible, but she lived in Washington. So, he was thrilled to be moving to New York, because that’s where his second cousin, Sharon, lived.  
But at the moment, he wasn’t so thrilled that this idea had popped into his head.

Peter never thought he would be taking advantage of Sharon’s ‘other job’. And he was going to try to find a different solution to his problem.

Who knows? Sharon usually gave great advice. Not about girls, but it was better than going to aunt May and uncle Ben.

So, on Saturday morning, he took his bike out to meet her at her apartment out in Brooklyn.

Nervously tapping his foot against the floor, Peter finally got to the point.

“I’m kind of having… girl problems.”

Sharon raised her eyebrows at him.

“What kind of problems? Like, I can’t fit her body in the trunk, problems? Or, I like her, problems?”

Peter blinked quickly in disbelief.

“… I like her.”

Her sense of humour wasn’t exactly normal.

“And you came to me?” She laughed. “I tried to give you a gun for your fifth birthday.”

Aunt Peggy did the same thing for Sharon when she was a kid. That led to her admiration for weapons, which Peter found slightly troubling.

Talking about it wasn’t going to help him find a solution.

“It would have been better if Ben could have used it for hunting, but whatever. On a completely unrelated note, you guys can do surveillance and stuff at the CIA, right?”

“You do realize that if I told you, I’d literally have to kill you.”

Peter immediately turned as white as a sheet.

Sharon nodded as a response, indicating that the answer to Peter’s question was ‘yes’.

“You’re not seriously asking to borrow some of my stuff to get information on some girl you like so you can figure out a way to get her to like you back.”

He may or may not have had a tiny little obsession with MJ.

It’s not like he was going to draw her. Just lightly use some government equipment. He was perfectly sane.

“Yes?”

Sharon stood up from her seat, beginning to rummage through the closet. She pulled out a rather large box, and dropped it down in front of Peter.

“Knock yourself out.” Opening the box, she began to go through the contents. “One of these things can show you what’s on any phone within a one-mile radius.”

“Huh?”

“About one point six kilometers. You’re in America now. Get used to the Imperial system.”

She then pulled out a few guns from the box, leaving them on the floor.

“I’m going to assume you shouldn’t have these. So, that leaves you with a few flash drives that probably don’t have info on this girl, but it’s worth a shot, a long-range scanner, and some old notebooks from S.H.I.E.L.D. Try not to stalk her too much.”

Peter turned as red as a tomato in embarrassment.

“I-I’m not going to stalk her. I… I just want to know more stuff about her.”

“When I was your age, people would talk to their crush like a normal person.”

“It’s not just a crush.” He sighed. “I really like her. Any chance you could let me know if someone’s spying on her or her family?”

“We only do that for potential threats and family members of terrorists. No spying done on kids. Except for you. Let me know how it goes.”

“I’m not going to spy on her!”

Sharon only shrugged.

“Getting information on someone without them knowing is the literal definition of ‘spying’. I’m honestly proud of you though. Feel free to spy on other people too. You might find something useful in the box.”

“Like what?”

She handed him the remaining contents of the box, shaking her head.

“You’ll see for yourself. Think of it as an early Christmas present.”

Peter was extremely confused as to what she meant. There was clearly something in there that was important.

Sharon was usually vague with her words. It served a good purpose from time to time, but until he found out, Peter was driven crazy.

He was obsessed with MJ. He wasn’t denying that. However, she wasn’t going anywhere. Peter could go through this stuff, and his original plan would have to wait.


	16. Richard, Ben, and Tony

As MJ was about to finally kiss Peter, in her head of course, she was pulled from her thoughts at the last second when Jane had to open her stupid mouth.

“I have a theory.”

Opening her eyes and groaning in frustration, MJ glared at her sister.

“About you and Peter.”

“Whatever it is, it’s probably a shit idea.”

“Just trust me on this one. It’s good on paper.” Jane reassured her.

“That’s what people say about socialism. But it fails every single time someone tries it.”

But the failures did provide MJ with some good literature.

Jane only rolled her eyes in response.

“My theory, is that you two haven’t gotten together yet because you’ve been planning it.”

That didn’t make any sense! Planning made sure things went perfectly. And MJ had this perfect idea for what their life together would look like.

It would be foolish to settle for anything else.

The only thing that mattered to her was getting married to Peter and having kids with him.

“So far, that’s pretty stupid. But I’ll try to hear you out.”

“Good. Throw away the crazy obsessive plan. Things aren’t going to go perfectly, and you’ll only get disappointed. There are too many things that could throw things off for you. Just have fun with him.”

People at school saw MJ as a loner who always knew what to say. But in reality, she was a huge dork who was hopelessly in love with Peter. She had no idea what to do when it came to him.

Hence the need for the plan.

On some level, she knew it wouldn’t work out. Life was just too impossible to predict.

But the idea of things going perfect and making these plans gave her some reassurance. It made her feel that she had some control in this fucked up life.

“But how?” MJ asked. “In case it wasn’t clear, I literally have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Just go over to his place. Hang out, laugh, make each other happy and all that shit. You’ll be together before you know it.”

MJ stood up from her seat, moving to grab her winter jacket.

“Fine. What do you think he’s up to right now?”

 

 

Uncle Ben never really talked about Peter’s dad. Peter never asked, so he didn’t have any knowledge of his parents other than what little he remembered.

But the curiosity of what kind of people they were always sat in the back of his head.

Soon after Peter got home from Sharon’s place, skimming through the old S.H.I.E.L.D notebooks, the first one he opened stood out to him. One of them had a photograph.

It was a rather old photo, which was made clear since the date was written on the back. June 12th, 1983. Peter recognized two of the three boys in the photo. On one end, stood his dad. And on the other, was Ben. His dad at that time was around ten years old, and Ben was fourteen. In between the two of them, stood a boy who he didn’t recognize.

Peter estimated his age to be twelve or thirteen. He was about Peter’s current height, with dark brown hair.

All three clearly knew each other well. They appeared to be extremely happy, smiling brightly with their arms placed around each other.

In the background, Peter did recognize one thing. That it was taken on his grandparent’s farm.

That sparked Peter’s curiosity even more.

Standing up from the floor, he walked quickly down the stairs to the backyard where Ben was working. His uncle loved to garden. It wasn’t a large piece of land like he used to have, but he was happy when he worked. Ben especially loved planting flowers for aunt May.

But, since it was winter, he was tending to the winterberries for some decorations around the house.

“Hey, Peter!” Ben greeted happily. “How’s Sharon doing?”

“She’s uh… she’s good. Can I ask a question?”

“You just did.” He quipped. “What’s up?”

Ben got up from the ground, brushing off his jeans and taking off his gloves, which were covered in snow.

“Uh… Sharon gave me a box of… stuff.”

It might not be the best idea to mention the government equipment that were currently in the hands of a thirteen-year-old.

“And I found this old photo of you and dad.”

Peter handed it over to Ben. Once he looked at it, a smile spread to his face.

“Oh, God. I haven’t seen this in years.”

“Who’s the guy in the middle?”

Ben handed it back to Peter as they started to walk back into the house.

“He’s kind of our cousin. An old family friend. Our aunt Peggy used to watch him all the time. Sometimes, Tony would come up from America and we’d hang out together. He was our best friend.”

“Tony?”

“You know. Tony Stark.”

Peter’s eyes immediately widened.

His dad and uncle were friends with Iron Man?!

He was a huge fan of his work. Not just the whole flying around in a suit of armour thing. He was the reason Peter wanted to go to MIT. Practically the reason Peter wanted to be an engineer.

But he never told anyone about that. It just didn’t seem important enough to bring it up to other people.

“Are you serious?” Peter asked in disbelief.

“Yep. Haven’t seen him since your parent’s funeral though. You remember him. Don’t you?”

Maybe vague flashes. Peter could kind of remember seeing him at the funeral. He just seemed like a regular guy. Just trying to say goodbye to his friends.

“Why don’t you see him anymore?”

Ben shrugged.

“Life happened. We all grew up and got busy with our jobs. Tony spent all his time running the company. Then he got kidnapped by terrorists and became a superhero. May and I still worked on the farm to raise you, and visiting became difficult since we were both so busy all the time. We still write each other from time to time. If we’re living in the same country now, it might be a bit easier. What would you think about meeting him sometime?”

“O-okay. Cool. I’m going to… go back inside now. Thanks Ben!”

This was definitely something big enough to distract him from his problem where he was completely obsessed with MJ. Those notebooks could actually be useful.

Running back up the stairs, skipping a step each time, he closed the door to his room. Pulling out his dad’s old laptop, Peter started to go through the old notebooks and the old files. They all had to enter a password to open them. Hopefully, the notebook would give him something that could help out with that.

Years of guessing had amounted to nothing. But Sharon did say the books would come in handy.

The files had to be pretty important if his dad went to this much trouble to hide what was in them. This was definitely going to take a while.

“Peter!” May called out from the main floor. “There’s someone here for you!”

“Ned?!”

“It’s a girl named Michelle!”

Peter’s head shot up, causing him to fall off of his bed onto the floor. A loud thud was heard from the main floor.

“Ow. Shit.” He groaned. “Coming!”


	17. Specimens

The plan was out.

As impossible as it seemed to be, Jane actually had a point. Life was just too unpredictable to plan out everything perfectly.

MJ was just going to focus on being with Peter.

‘Just have fun with him’.

Jane’s words echoed through MJ’s brain while she heard Peter descending the stairs. A light blush spread to her cheeks, looking down at the floor to prevent him from seeing how obviously flustered she was.

If MJ was being completely honest, she was afraid.

She was in love with Peter Parker. She was sure of it. And what scared her the most was the possibility that he wouldn’t feel the same way.

Shut up! Don’t think about that! Relax, and have fun.

“Hey, MJ. What are you… what are you doing here? N-not that I’m complaining. I’m just kind of surprised. It’s a nice surprise though! So, uh… hi. I already said that, didn’t I?”

MJ could only smile as Peter continued to ramble. At some point, she wasn’t even listening to his words.

Just watching him was enough. Getting the chance to be this close to him.

“Do you want to hang out?” MJ blurted out. Putting him to a stop.

“Uh… y-yeah. Sure. Come on.”

Peter started to walk up the stairs, with MJ following close behind.

She knew that they were going towards his room. She knew the entire layout of the house.

Every future wife should get the blueprints from the city for their future husband’s house, memorize it, and watch them through the window to figure out what room they’re sleeping in.

Perfectly normal.

Peter’s room was quite cluttered. MJ didn’t expect anything else.

Hoodies across the floor, books and papers of God knows what on his bed, Star Wars toys, a Bible, some skates. It was a mess.

She loved that for some weird reason.

What she loved even more is how he quickly tried to clean up everything.

Peter picked up all his hoodies and proceeded to carelessly throw them into the closet. Everything else was just pushed into the corner while MJ sat on the clear spot on his bed.

It was fine. They’d be sharing a bed one of these days.

She was naturally curious about things. Specifically, things about him.

Peter’s computer was sitting open on his bed. It was asking to enter a password to open some files.

“What’s this?” MJ asked, gesturing to the screen.

He adjusted his glasses and moved to sit next to her, shoulders brushing against each other.

“Just some of my dad’s old stuff. I’ve been trying to figure out the password, but it’s impossible.”

“Hmm. Mind if I try?”

“Knock yourself out. But there’s no way you could get it. I’ve been trying for years. Every possible thing has been tried, and –”

“I got it.”

Peter’s head shot up, eyes darting between the computer and MJ.

“H-how?”

“It was easy. You didn’t even try ‘peter’. Since it was your dad’s, I kind of assumed.”

Before she could realize what was happening, Peter wrapped his arms around her, laughing happily while hugging her tightly.

“You’re amazing, MJ! God, I love you!”

Her hands started to tremble as she placed them around him, returning the gesture.

“I love you too.” She whispered. Too quiet for him to hear her.

MJ internally screamed.

‘I love you more than anything.’ She said in her head.

Much to her disappointment, Peter let go of her, grabbing the computer.

“So, uh… what’s on it?”

Both of their eyes were glued to the screen, reading what little was on the first file.

Address: New York City, New York. 200 Park Avenue

Floor: 21

Room: 616

Access Code: 28995725

Peter copied the information down on his phone and grabbed his winter jacket off of the ground, heading for the door.

“Where are you going?” MJ asked, going after him.

“Room six hundred and sixteen. Two hundred Parker Avenue.” He stated while pulling on his boots.

“That’s all the way in Manhattan! Do you even know how to get there?”

“Nope. But I’m guessing you do. Wanna come with?”

This was clearly a bad idea.

His dad clearly didn’t want people to find out what was there. And if a room required an access code, that definitely raised some more red flags.

Might as well have some fun though.

“Sure.”

MJ thought she recognized the address from somewhere. But she couldn’t exactly place it.

 

 

As the two of them came to the front of the building, MJ was pretty sure she remembered what building this was. And it made what was in the file it all the more interesting.

It used to be a Stark Industries Facility. Today, it was something a little more… important.

“Avengers Tower?” Peter questioned.

“What did your dad do for a living?”

He only shrugged.

“I don’t really remember him. But he was friends with Tony.”

Peter and MJ started to walk towards the building, going through the front door as if they owned the place.

“Bullshit.”

“I literally just found out.”

MJ rolled her eyes at him.

“Whatever. Do you seriously think people would just let you take the elevator? The security here is supposed to be really tight.”

Peter raised his eyebrow, turning to the head of security.

He was a rather tall man in a suit with a goatee. He was also extremely sweaty. Reading over the name on his tag, MJ’s worries were put to rest.

‘Happy Hogan. Forehead of Security.’

“Okay then. But just so we’re clear, I don’t want any part of what this is. I’ll help you get in, but I’m not going in there.”

“Great!” Peter smiled brightly.

That stupid smile always made her legs feel like jelly.

“You see that stack of files over there? Knock them over, and then you can go home.”

“Huh?”

“If people are trying to clean up a mess, they won’t notice me going to the elevator. I’ll see you soon!”

And with that, he was gone. This really wasn’t what she had in mind when she came over to his place.

There were so many things they could be doing right now to make him fall in love with her. Skating, walking in the park, snowball fights.

She throws one that hits him in the face so he tackles her into the snow. And as they’re lying there, she finally kisses him.

It would have been perfect!

But whatever. This was fine.

 

 

With Peter stepping out of the elevator onto the twenty-first floor, he pulled on a spare lab coat in an attempt to blend in.

If people saw him up-close, they would have obviously sent him out from the building. After all, he was just a thirteen-year-old kid.

But from a distance, they wouldn’t give him a second look.

Around the corner, Peter heard that two people were coming towards him, arguing about something. He kneeled down on the ground, pretending to tie his shoelace in order to conceal his face.

“All I’m saying is, now that I’m in control of the Hulk, I could easily kick you ass.” Bruce Banner stated, walking around as a well-dressed, green giant.

“Don’t be ridiculous, my friend!” Thor laughed. “You may have the brains, but no one can stop Mjolnir. If I placed it upon you, you wouldn’t be able to move a muscle!”

Peter stood up once the two passed by, and he could no longer hear them.

Room six hundred and sixteen didn’t appear to be anything special. The door was like any other he had seen in the building.

Looking around the empty hallway, Peter quickly entered the code.

2 – 8 – 9 – 9 – 5 – 7 – 2 – 5

The door immediately unlocked with a beep, and he walked through effortlessly. Thankfully, no one was inside. What the hell were people doing in here?

His parents were both scientists. That was one of the few things he remembered about them. But what kind of work they were involved in was a mystery.

Doing some work here for Stark Industries wasn’t that farfetched.

In the corner of the room, Peter noticed there was a glass container that appeared to have the top off. This little door just hadn’t been closed properly.

It was kind of strange.

A small group of red and blue spiders were crawling around inside.

He moved to close the container as one of the escaped spiders descended from the ceiling on a web.

The second it shut; Peter felt a sharp pain in his hand as the spider sunk their fangs into his skin.

“Fuck!”

Instinctively, he swatted it to the ground and stepped on it, killing the spider instantly.

 

 

Unbeknownst to Peter, someone had been watching him via the security cameras the entire time. Tony leaned back in his seat, staring at the screen with curiosity.

“Jarvis.” He called out to his AI. “Identify this kid.”

“Peter Benjamin Parker. Age thirteen, recently moved to New York from Canada. Correct me if I’m wrong, sir. But were you not close friends with his father and uncle?”

Tony cleared his throat, looking away for just a moment.

“Y-yeah. Poor kid.”

“What am I to do, sir? The Super Soldier Spiders were not yet ready for testing.”

After Richard and Mary Parker died, their attempts at replicating the Super Soldier Serum had been scrapped. The only thing that remained were the fifteen specimens that had been locked up ever since.

“We’ll monitor the kid. If Richard’s calculations were right, he should have fully developed the abilities six months from now. Destroy the rest of the specimens, and make sure he gets out okay.”

“Very good, sir.”


	18. Stage One

MJ knocked on Peter’s bedroom door, pressing her ear against it to check on him.

“Hey!” She called out. “How’d it go?”

Peter opened the door quickly, appearing to be in a panicked state.

The poor thing looked like he had just been buried under an entire building.

“It’s gone!” He cried. “All my dad’s files! It’s just… gone!”

MJ followed him back into his room, inspecting the laptop. Peter slammed it shut, causing her to jump back, startled.

She looked down at his hands which were trembling.

Sweat was dripping down on his face.

His pupils were clearly more sensitive to the light, and every little noise seemed to set him off.

Even the cute blush that always remained on his cheeks were gone.

Peter was now extremely pale. Looking even more sickly than he normally did.

“I – I – I…” He stuttered. “I just REALLY need to know what the fuck is happening right now. A-a-and…”

He sat down on his bed, placing his head in his hands. Even then, he wouldn’t stop shaking.

“What happened?” MJ asked softly.

She thought it best to be as calm with him as possible. No matter what. Peter wasn’t acting like Peter at all.

Peter held out his hand, letting MJ grab his wrist. There was a large, swollen red mark on his hand. Black veins were running all across his arm.

She rolled up his sleeve to see that the darkness went all the way up to his neck, which was revealed when the collar of his flannel was pulled down.

“Did you talk to your aunt? Isn’t she a nurse?”

Peter jolted suddenly. Shutting his eyes and shaking his head in response.

“I can’t talk to her about this. O-o-or anyone. I was… I was in the room. And a, uh…” Peter stumbled over his words, trying to remember as best he could. “Spider! Right, yeah. A spider bit me. It was in some kind of lab, so I can’t… I don’t want to go to the hospital! D-don’t make me go!”

MJ hated seeing him like this. But she wasn’t going to make him do anything that made him uncomfortable.

“I’m not going to make you go.” She whispered. “Just let me help you.”

Peter buried his face his MJ’s shoulder. He was just a scared little kid, going through some really fucked up shit right now.

She placed the laptop on the ground to make room, pulling back the blanket.

“I’ll be right back.”

As Peter collapsed into bed with the blanket draped over him, MJ ran to the bathroom. She filled up a glass of water, and got a thermometer out from the cupboard.

MJ was also going to be needing her ‘Peter-book’. She would be crazy if she wasn’t going to document this. It was for his benefit. She wasn’t going to take any pleasure in this notetaking.

Going back to his room, Peter was shivering as if he was in a bath of ice. He loved the cold, so this was anything but a good sign.

The very image of this made MJ feel horrible. Ignoring the lump in her throat, she stuck the thermometer in his mouth, opening her book to begin the notes.

The date, which was December 23rd, his symptoms, the spider bite, everything. None of them seemed to be anything associated with a regular spider bite. 

And they were in a lab.

That just happened to belong to the Avengers.

WebMD was pretty much thrown out the window at this point.

As a small beep came from the thermometer, MJ pulled it out of his mouth to check the temperature.

One hundred- and twenty-degrees Fahrenheit.

How the hell was he still alive right now?!

“How do you feel?’ MJ asked worriedly.

“C-cold.”

She handed him the glass of water, which he snatched out of her hand and downed almost instantly.

“Thank you.” He barely got the words out. “W-why’s it so bright?”

The lights in the room weren’t even turned on. The only source of light was a small bit coming in from the window. MJ could barely see his face.

Stage One: Sensory overload.

Patient is reacting negatively to light. Vampire is ruled out since his reflection is visible. Patient is also reacting negatively to sounds. Appears to be in disarray.

Peter’s glasses weren’t on, so MJ saw this as an opportunity to test something.

Picking up a book off of the floor, she held it far away from his face, pointing at a smallest point of text possible. The letters just above the barcode.

“Can you tell me what this says?”

“I – S – B – N – 2 – 1 – 8 – 7.”

Even MJ had to look closely to tell what it was. They were exactly what Peter said they were.

Patient has clearly improved eyesight. Far beyond that of a normal person. Glasses appear to be obsolete at this stage. Sensitive hearing points to heightened senses.

“You’re going to be okay, Peter.” She muttered under her breath. Assuming he could hear it perfectly.

 

 

Tony placed a replica of Peter’s glasses in a small box, handing it to one of his drones.

“Sir.” Jarvis began. “Mr. Parker appears to be in the first stage of the transformation.”

Heightened senses. And the development of a sixth sense.

“Have the drone switch these out with his current glasses. They should get his sight back to bearable levels, and make the process go a little more smoothly. Did you delete the files off of his computer?”

“Every last one of them. Just as you requested.”

“Good.”

Tony stood up from his chair, making his way over to the screen.

“Pull up the stages along with the timeline. We can’t help with everything, but some inventions can make it less painful.”

“May I suggest injecting him with Compound D-17? The veins should fade by themselves by the end of stage five, but the compound should bring down his fever.”

If the veins wouldn’t disappear for a while, it was pretty good that he wore sweaters all the time. Covering up his arms wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

“Good idea. How long does stage one last?”

“One month. The same amount of time for each one. Stage two, he will experience enhanced agility and reflexes. Stage three is the adhesive effect. Stage four, his bones and organs will become more durable. Stage five, organic webbing will be produced and expelled from his wrists. And finally, stage six. Mr. Parker will experience rapid growth in stature, and muscle mass.”

“At least the webs won’t be coming out of his ass like a real spider. Is there any chance of him growing extra arms or eyes?”

Jarvis pulled up a hologram of Peter, morphing it slightly.

“Thankfully not. But his biology will indeed change. Currently, Mr. Parker stands at five feet, two inches tall. If my calculations are correct, he will experience a six-inch growth spurt, larger bones, microscopic hairs for climbing, and webbing coursing through his veins.”

The hologram of Peter suddenly grew taller, and expanded his bones. Jarvis showed an x-ray of his circulatory system, which featured something other than blood.

“In order for web swinging to be possible, he will develop new cells.”

“Because spiders have an open circulatory system.” Tony interjected.

“Exactly. Seeing as they don’t have blood, Peter’s system will be filled with human blood, webs, and hemolymph.”

“So, his blood will circulate like a normal human, but the hemolymph will remain everywhere at once to combat g-forces.”

“And his brain will remain oxygenated at all times, making passing out virtually impossible. And since spider bodies are designed like a parachute, they can survive great falls. Parker’s new bones and organs can withstand this due to their durability.”

“Kind of gross when you really think about it. Can you call Bruce down here? See what we can do about making the veins go away.”


	19. Christmas Eve

One of the things that Peter loved most about Christmas Eve was the evening church service.

Especially the hymns.

But that night didn't feel anything like Christmas time.

His eyesight was fine whenever he wore his glasses for some reason. But his hearing? That was still a nightmare.

The organ, instead of sounding beautiful, sounded as if the entire thing was being thrown down an elevator shaft while a bunch of cats screamed in his ear.

Not the best analogy, but still.

Peter’s fever went down after a good night sleep, and the black veins were starting to fade.

Which was good enough. For the most part.

It was like all of his senses had been dialed up to eleven… thousand.

Sometimes, it felt like he was being touched before he was. When May’s hand even hovered around him, he just jolted away involuntarily.

It was really freaking him out.

During the sermon, Peter felt as if he was going to pass out. Which had been becoming a normal occurrence in the last twenty-four hours.

He quietly stood up from the pew, trying his best to go unnoticed by Father Lantom.

Walking on the outside of the row near the wall instead of the middle, Peter headed out the back doors and descended the stairs to the bathroom.

His first instinct was to call MJ, but since she was with her family at her church, that wasn’t an option.

‘Dr. Jones’ could have easily helped him.

MJ was the one thing that always made him feel better.

Peter almost collapsed in front of the sink, but caught himself at the last second, propping himself up on his hands.

Gazing into the mirror, Peter tried to drown out all the noise.

Father Lantom’s voice came out as clear as a bell. His feet felt a vibration in the floor, that he could swear was the subway. The snow dropping on the roof and the sidewalk outside. Everything caused him to move.

His head turned rapidly to face the door.

Footsteps were coming towards him, paired with a calm heartbeat and white cane tapping against the floor.

Peter was immediately put at ease when Mr. Murdock walked through the door.

He considered everyone here to be a friend, but Mr. Murdock and him shared one major life experience in common. Both were orphaned at a young age.

Mr. Murdock sometimes helped Peter out with his homework too.

All in all, he was a great guy.

“Are you okay, Peter?”

Rubbing his temples for a moment, he nodded in response.

“Y-yeah. All good. I’m sorry for leaving. I just -”

Matt held up his hand, signaling for him to stop talking.

“It’s the noises, isn’t it?”

“How did you –”

“I had something similar when I was your age. Probably happened in different ways, but it really sucks. Heartbeats are the worst of it.”

Peter wasn’t even going to try and figure out how the hell Matt knew about being able to hear people’s heartbeats. There was too much going on right now to focus on anything.

“So, you hear it too?”

“Hear, feel, taste, smell, everything. Except sight, obviously.” He said, gesturing to his glasses. “It was a little worse for me because of my eyes, but it still drives you crazy. Now it only happens if I want it to.”

“How though?”

With all the ringing in his ears, and the involuntary movements, Peter started to think that what Matt was saying was impossible.

“Close your eyes, and take in a deep breath.”

He was willing to try anything, so he quickly followed the instructions.

“Just focus on your breathing. ONLY your breathing. Pretend that nothing else exists.”

Peter continued to inhale and exhale in a steady pattern.

His shoulders fell down and his arms loosened up, trying to relax.

As the rest of him became perfectly still, the vibrations in the floor began to stop. For the first time today, he felt somewhat normal.

Father Lantom’s voice began to quiet down. Matt’s heartbeat disappeared with the snow on the room.

His hearing was still exceptional, but things were a bit calmer now. No involuntary movements.

Or so he thought.

While Peter was in this state, Matt quietly took his keys out of his pocket and threw them at Peter’s face rapidly.

Peter, with his eyes still closed and not paying any attention, raised his hand and caught the keys with ease.

The reflexes weren’t anything special. He moved as fast as a normal human would. But his reaction was anything but normal.

Peter didn’t even know that he had caught the keys until his eyes opened. He didn’t even know that they had been thrown at him.

Looking up in awe, Matt only smirked.

“You’ll learn to control your senses with a little more practice. All you have to do is relax and breath. If you do it for about twenty minutes a day, it should take no more than a month.”

“O-okay. Thanks.”

“Now come on. Father Lantom’s just finishing up.”

 

 

MJ sat up in her bed, going over her notes from the previous day.

She had spent hours doing nothing else after she got home. Whatever the hell was happening to Peter wasn’t normal, so it was near impossible to figure out what he was going through.

But she did notice a few things this morning.

The first thing was that there was a faint mark on his neck that appeared to be from a needle. Miraculously, he didn’t seem to notice. And his fever had magically disappeared.

The second thing was his glasses. They didn’t belong to him.

Any other person wouldn’t have noticed, but this was MJ. She knew everything about Peter down to the very last detail.

His glasses had a small crack in the frame at the top left, and the arm was bent on the left side by just a tiny amount.

The new ones didn’t have any of that. And whenever he wore them, his eyesight went back to normal.

Very interesting.

Peter’s family is close with the Stark’s. His father had secret files on a computer that led him to a lab at Avengers Tower. He then proceeds to get bitten by a spider, have heightened senses, and have black veins.

Those gave MJ the impression that there was something other than blood inside him now.

The fact is, that Peter’s biology had been changed.

And spider senses were some of the most sensitive in the entire world.

People cooking up stuff in Stark Industries/Avengers crazy town that could give Peter the potential to have the same abilities as a spider wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the world.

Hell, in the 40s, a Stark and one of Peter’s ancestors helped a German give a scrawny kid a growth spurt and a shitload of muscles.

And that was over seventy years ago. Science had come a long way since then.

Peter getting superpowers was the conclusion MJ had come to.

She shook her head in disbelief. Just the thought of that sounded ridiculous. But this was a world where a billionaire flew around in a metal box, an alien who had a magic hammer was best friends with a green giant, and something as horrible as Eugene Thompson existed.

If those things were possible, there was no reason Peter’s powers couldn’t be possible.

The only things left to explain were the new glasses, and his needle mark.

The needle, most likely, was the thing responsible for his fever going away. Since he didn’t appear to be experiencing a sickness, and how quickly it went away, whoever did this to him was trying to help.

MJ also guessed that the needle person was the glasses person.

She was a genius.

An evil one at that. Her family always called her that.

And that was backed up by the fact that she had been able to come to this conclusion in the past twenty-four hours.

But it wasn’t even that impressive.

Anyone with a brain could have figured out that Tony Stark was trying to help Peter better adjust to his powers. Even a monkey could have done it.

MJ had been reassured that Peter was going to be alright. Eventually. At the moment, he was in pain. Changing his biology wasn’t going to be an easy process.

Getting up from her bed, MJ put on her winter coat and grabbed her keys from off her desk.

Tony Stark had a lot to answer for.

And there was no way that MJ was going to wait until morning.


	20. Tony Stark

“Sir.” Jarvis spoke into Tony’s earpiece, waking him up from his Christmas Eve slumber. “There was recently a disturbance on the roof, and some of my cameras have been disabled.”

He sat up in his bed, looking over at Pepper, who was fast asleep. Tony immediately fell back down on his face, groaning.

“Maybe it’s Santa Claus. Can you just give him some milk and cookies?”

“Very well, sir. However, I must inform you that it is an adolescent female who has intruded. And they’re in the living room on the floor just below you. Shall I put out enough cookies for the both of you?”

Tony yawned, stumbling as he got up to his feet.

Holding out his arm, part of his suit flew towards him and attached to his right arm.

“Why not? I’ve been feeling a little peckish.”

Down in the living room, MJ leaned back in her spot on the couch while writing in her notebook. Just as she always was.

MJ obviously wasn’t going to hurt Tony. It would have been stupid to go up against an Avenger, despite how much she wanted to.

This was just going to a friendly, somewhat hostile, discussion between one of the smartest people in the world… and Tony Stark.

She looked up once she heard footsteps descending the stairs, paired with a blue glow coming from the figure’s chest.

“Lights.” He commanded.

The living room quickly brightened with Tony staring back at MJ.

“Stark.” She greeted, hopefully intimidating yet another one of her victims.

But much to her surprise, although her expression remained unphased, Tony took off his gauntlet and acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“Merry Christmas, MJ. Can I call you MJ?”

“No.” She responded sternly. “Care to tell me just how the fuck you know my name?”

He picked up both of the glasses of milk, handing one to her while keeping the other to himself.

“Just be glad Cap didn’t hear you say that. He’d go all ‘disappointed old man’ on you. I saw you on the security cameras with Peter the other day. Care to tell me just how the fuck you got into my tower?”

MJ shrugged, standing up from her place and staring at him.

The height was usually good for scaring people, but they were the same height at five feet, eight inches.

Still though.

A thirteen-year-old girl being as tall as you can’t do much for your ego.

“It was a lot easier now that I knew what your security was like. Forehead of Security? Really?”

“Just an inside joke.”

“Whatever. I’d be stupid to let you know about the obvious flaws in your system. Gotta save some of the good stuff for myself. And I’ll make a few things clear, Stark. I’m the one asking the questions, because you’re really causing my… good friend some pain right now.”

Tony downed the rest of the milk while already munching on one of the cookies.

“Why Pepper wants kids is totally beyond me.” He muttered to himself. “If they turn out even a little bit like me, the whole world is screwed. Anyway, I’m guessing your ‘good friend’ is Peter Parker. Honestly, it’s painful to watch you give each other constant faces that look like the face with eyes for hearts.”

MJ ignored that last comment in an attempt to take back control of the conversation.

“What were you doing with those spiders, and why is he getting powers?”

While he was chewing, he held out the plate offering the cookies, but the glare she sent back was enough of an answer.

“You’re missing out on these things. They’re Pepper’s mother’s recipe.”

“Get on with it, Stark.”

“Fine. So, Peter’s parents were both scientists who also happened to be field agents for… S.H.I.E.L.D, I think. Or Canadian Intelligence. No idea about that part, but still. Government agents. Pretty cool, right? At some point, Richard came to me with an idea about replicating the Super Soldier Serum, but with radioactive spiders. I’m missing a whole chunk of time there about why he got that idea, aren’t I?”

That was a lot of information to process in thirty seconds.

“I don’t care about the why. Does Peter know about his parents?”

“Nope. He made Ben and I promise we wouldn’t tell him. And I expect you to keep this part to yourself. The rest, you’d better remember if you want to help your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” She snapped, beginning to blush.

“He wants to be.” Tony responded, arrogant as ever. “There are six stages to his transformation. By the end of June, 2015, he’ll have all his powers. You know, Richard came up with this little song for the spiders. Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Does whatever a spider can!”

MJ shook her head while giving him an unimpressed look.

“What?”

“It’s like how Cap had his theme song. Wheeeeeen Captain America throws his mighty shieeeeeeld! All those who choose to oppose his shield must yieeeeeeld!”

No wonder people tried to kill this guy so often. He just never shuts up!

“When you say ‘does whatever a spider can’, do you really mean everything?”

“In a certain sense. Peter basically got a stronger version of the Super Soldier Serum. Plus a few more powers. Enhanced senses, speed, reflexes, sticking to any surface he wants to, healing factor, nearly unbreakable bones, shoot webs from his wrists, and super strength. He’ll also grow about half a foot and some muscles over his scrawny frame.”

As usual, MJ found herself to be right about everything.

The boy she was in love with was developing superpowers.

She wasn’t able to scare Iron Man like she wanted, but it was enough to be right about his involvement in the whole thing.

“Tell me how I can help him.”

MJ knew that he probably wouldn’t give up the information just like that.

“Sure thing. Jarvis?” He called out. “Prepare some files for Ms. Jones to help her assist Mr. Parker. Send her them once they’re complete.”

“Yes sir.”

He literally gave up the information just like that.

“And erase part of her memory while you’re at it.”

“Wait, what?!” She asked, shocked.

“Sorry, kid. It’s not that I don’t trust you not to tell Peter about his parents, but… I don’t. And it’s for your own good. Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn’t have said that part. Fury will have my head for that.”

“Who’s Fury?”

Tony closed his eyes in frustration, banging his head against the wall.

“Erase that too!”

“Right away, sir.”

“And erase part of mine, too! And get rid of my fear of being handed things!”

 

 

MJ woke up back in her bed, with her memory slightly altered. The only thing that was erased was the part about Peter’s parents, and the whole ‘Fury’ thing.

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, she looked over to her bedside table to check the time.

It was seven o’clock in the morning.

Next to her old clock, there was a large box, wrapped in red and green paper.

MJ rolled out of bed, moving to check the tag.

‘Merry Christmas! Hope you can help Peter with this stuff! -T.S.’

‘P.S. Tell him how you feel already!’


	21. Powers

Peter exhaled deeply while sitting cross-legged on his bedroom floor.

The technique that Mr. Murdock taught him was starting to work towards some controllable senses.

It had been about a week since then, and while he was still being driven crazy by the smallest noises or even faint sunlight, it was far better than the first day.

To his ears, no other sound existed outside of his breathing.

They were brought back to reality when there was a knock on his bedroom door.

Thankfully, that was all Peter heard. No heartbeat, snow on the roof, or annoying ticks. Sure. Things were louder than a normal person would have heard, but he wasn’t complaining at all.

“Come in.” He called out.

The door opened swiftly as MJ walked into his room, closing the door behind her. She sat down across from him while dropping down some files in front of him.

“Hey, bug-boy.”

What the hell did she mean by ‘bug-boy’?

“Huh?”

“I go these files about a week ago. I went through them myself and added a few things. Long story short, you got bitten by a radioactive spider and are getting superpowers.”

Peter felt his heart stop for just a moment.

If anyone had said that to him, he wouldn’t have believed it.

But this was MJ! She never lied! Ever! And even when she joked, it was making fun of people. Those always came from a truth telling place.

There was also a zero percent chance of him mishearing her.

“W-what?”

Peter’s voice was raised about three octaves.

“Yeah. Stark gave me these for Christmas. I figured it out like… the day after you were bitten. Then I went to him so I could help.”

Radioactive spider?!

“I-I’m not going to die. R-right?”

“Nope. It was your dad’s idea, actually. You’ll live, but it’s going to be painful. Your entire biology is going to go though some pretty intense changes. After that, it’s smooth sailing. Except you’ll be superhuman. Worse things could happen.”

How the hell was she talking about this as if it was a normal thing?!

Powers did sound awesome. But Peter didn’t want to be a superhero! He just wanted to be a normal kid! His life had been anything but normal though. It wasn’t selfish to want a little bit of that.

Peter felt as if he was going to puke. And not just because of the transformation he was going through.

Normal was a good thing! When he wanted to get a job helping people, he expected it to be like a doctor, or a scientist, or the army like Ben. Not getting thrown into some Avengers-level shit!

He stood up from his place on the floor running out of the room and rushing down the stairs.

As Peter was heading to the bathroom, Ben noticed that he was freaking out and stepped in front of him.

His uncle held him by the shoulders, going down to his height.

“Are you okay?” He asked, calmly.

“N-no. I uh…”

“Woah, woah.” Ben said, raising his hand. “Just breath.”

Peter nodded quickly in response, proceeding to inhale and exhale. Ben did the same, setting a slow pace between the two of them. Peter felt himself relax, now clearing his head.

“Now, tell me what’s wrong.”

He was definitely not going to mention the superpowers part.

“Um… what if… there were people who could do stuff. Stuff that… other people couldn’t? Stuff that could really help people. A-and, let’s say that there were a lot of them. Is it okay if just ONE person… who could also do that stuff, didn’t want to?”

Ben pulled out two chairs in the kitchen, sitting across from Peter.

Sweat dripped down his face while he nervously tapped his foot against the floor.

“Where is this coming from?”

“I-is it okay if I don’t answer that?”

Ben nodded slowly, smiling at his nephew.

“Of course. I won’t pry.”

That was one of the many reasons Peter loved Ben so much.

“So, this one person. Do they want to help people?”

“… yeah. A lot. But… they also want to be normal.”

Ben obviously knew who they were talking about. But he probably didn’t know the full context.

“And these things they can do. Are they normal?”

Peter snorted for just a second.

“God, no. I don’t know what it is yet. But, no.”

He then placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder, now with a serious expression.

“Just one person can make all the difference. If one guy stood before a whole army, people would follow them. If one guy tried to make a change for the better, the change would happen. When someone has power, it’s the right thing to do to help people. It doesn’t matter how normal they want to be. Helping people in any way you can isn’t normal. But it’s the standard we should all strive for. With great power, comes great responsibility.”

Peter looked down at his feet, ashamed of himself.

As usual, Ben was right.

He would be able to do some amazing things. It really was selfish not to use them for the benefit of other people.

“You know, you’re really good at giving those speeches.” He joked, trying to brighten things up.

“Did it sound cool? It felt pretty cool.”

Peter smiled up and Ben.

“Pretty cool.” He then stood up from his chair, placing his chin on his shoulder while hugging Ben. “Thanks for that.”

Ben placed his hands around his nephew’s skinny frame and laughed.

“Anytime, son.”

It wasn’t weird that he called him ‘son’. Peter did have a father, but Ben raised him. He loved his father, and what little he remembered of him. But Ben Parker would always be his dad.

When the two separated, Peter raced back upstairs to his room where MJ still sat.

He didn’t want to be a superhero. What other kids would have dreamed for would end up being a curse.

But that was the decision that he had just made. He wanted to make Ben proud. And he was going to.

“You good, bug-boy?” MJ asked with genuine concern.

“I am now. But can we come up with something cooler than bug-boy?”

She shrugged.

“Stark said that your dad came up with ‘Spider-Man’. Complete with a shitty, Captain America style theme song.”

Spider-Man.

It had a nice ring to it.

“I like the sound of that.” He smiled.

MJ only rolled her eyes at him.

“Don’t expect me to call you that, though. I’m sticking with Peter. Including, but not limited to: Dork. Loser. Nerd. Canada. Bug-boy. Pete. Petey. Parker. Peter Parker. PBP. Peter Benjamin Parker. MFH. And moron.”

“What’s MFH?”

It stood for ‘my future husband’.

“Don’t worry about it. Anyways, Stark’s files have some ways for you to help control your powers. Your transformation lasts for six months, getting a new power each month.”

“What are they?”

MJ kept the file close to her chest.

“I’ll keep that to myself for now. You can’t be the only one of us who gets to have fun with this.”

Peter immediately deflated.

“No fair.” He whined.

“You’ll thank me later. Best to take this one step at a time. It’s part of my plan.”

“You already have a plan?”

“Had it for about a week. I had to work out a few kinks before coming to you.”

“So… you plan a lot?”

More than he ever knew. Maybe, some would say, up to the point of obsession.

“From time to time. You’re currently in stage one. Your senses become heightened, and you develop a sixth one. At the end of the cycle, you’ll be able to avoid danger involuntarily. Your dad even added a side note to it. ‘Call it spider-sense’.”

“Cool name!”

MJ scoffed, shaking her head at him.

“Dork. You can’t control that last one. But the others –”

“Actually…” Peter interrupted her. “A friend of mine already gave me a technique for that. It’s really helped out so far. I’m really sorry for asking this. But could you maybe whisper? It’s just… easier on the ears.”

He blushed slightly. He felt bad for having to ask.

“Sure.” She whispered. “You don’t have to apologize.”

Maybe developing these powers wouldn’t be so bad. It meant that he’d get to spend a lot more time with MJ.

And that did bode well for his tiny, little obsession with her.

“Thanks.”


	22. Responsibility

“Fired?” May asked Ben again.

The two were sitting across from each other in the dining room as Ben looked down in shame.

“Uh… yeah. It just… wasn’t working out. The police academy was interfering with my hours, so they fired me. I’m SO sorry, honey. I –”

May held up a finger to his lips, putting a stop to her husband’s words.

“You don’t need to apologize.” She laughed. “It’s not a big deal.”

Ben was clearly taken aback by her reaction.

“But… I was fired.”

“So, what? It’s just a job. A horribly managed, unfair working hours, minimum wage paying job.”

“We REALLY needed that money though.”

May stood up from her chair and kissed his forehead.

“You’ll be out of the academy in a few months. And until then, I could just pick up another shift at the hospital. We got this.”

Peter sat at the top of the stairs, listening to every word. It was kind of hard not to eavesdrop what with his super hearing.

He knew that he shouldn’t have been listening to the private conversation between them.

Money problems had been looming over the house for ages. Selling the farm had allowed them to get a place to live, so the mortgage wasn’t a problem.

But the rest of the money had been set aside for Peter’s university.

And this city was seriously expensive.

Peter couldn’t help but feel guilty about it. He had made their lives so much more difficult.

He was a burden.

And now, it was his responsibility to fix this.

Heading back into his bedroom and putting on his winter jacket and boots, Peter climbed out the window and dropped down into the snowy driveway.

May wouldn’t be checking on him for the rest of the night, and the grocery store where Ben worked –

Used to work, was still open this late.

It wasn’t the dumbest idea Peter had ever come up with.

Just sneaking out in the middle of the night to go speak to the store manager and ask him to give Ben his job back.

What could go wrong?

The grocery store, thankfully, was just down the street from their house.

It made living there convenient, because it was the one street where you could find everything.

Books, food, clothes, a bank, a car wash, even a movie theatre.

Ben at least saved money on his commute.

The snow on the sidewalk had been pushed down by people constantly walking over it. Peter easily made it down the street without slipping or anything. And they weren’t icy in the slightest.

Opening the door in a huff, Peter walked to the back of the store where the manager was. He could hear his voice as clear as bell, talking on the phone.

“Yeah, I fired him.”

“But I don’t get it. Wasn’t Parker a good worker?”

“Do you think I care about who works hard or not? Guy was working too many shifts. Almost cost us some fair pay. He had to go.”

He clenched his fists, causing the area to echo with a loud crack.

Peter felt his blood begin to boil. Banging on the office door, the manager hung up his phone, moving to answer it.

“What the hell do you want, kid?”

He almost sounded as if he was mocking Peter in some way. Staring down on him in the most condescending look on his face possible.

“I want you to rehire Ben Parker.”

The manager immediately burst into a fit of laughter, clutching onto the door for support.

It was clearly an overreaction. Obviously trying to show how ridiculous he thought the idea was.

“This may come as a shock to you, kid. But my number one priority isn’t rehiring employees. I fired Parker, and that’s that. Get used to the real world.”

“But I heard you!” Peter exclaimed. “You just fired him to save money!”

“It’s how you run a business.”

He didn’t know what to say next. Peter stumbled over his words, which came out as incoherent noises.

“You… it’s not… I…”

“O-oh. I c-can’t speak!” The manager mocked. “I still don’t care.”

“Please! We need that money! Come on. Don’t you want to help people?”

Peter felt a hand on his shoulder, pushing him back.

“I missed the part where that’s my problem. Now, get out of here.”

 

 

About a week later, in the final days of stage one, Peter and Ned walked down the sidewalk on their way back home from the movie theatre.

Ned still had no idea about Peter’s powers. It was actually nice to have this be a secret with MJ.

Peter was only half listening to his friend’s words, instead focusing on the grocery store as they were passing by.

“Still no luck finding a job?” Ned asked.

“Nope.” He sighed. “As hard as it is to believe, people aren’t jumping at the chance to hire a thirteen-year-old boy. And it sucks, you know? I worked on a farm since I was five! I could easily –”

Peter stopped talking when he looked through the store window. The manager was being held at gunpoint, filling up a bag with all the money from the cashier.

“Dude!” Ned whispered. “Should we call the cops?!”

As the robber started to run out the door, Peter stepped to the side, letting him run off with the money.

“What the hell, Parker?!” The manager scolded after running out onto the sidewalk. “Why didn’t you stop him?!”

He only smirked up at him.

“I missed the part where that’s my problem.”

If it was anyone else, Peter would have jumped at the chance to help. But this guy deserved it. If he wasn’t willing to be a decent human being and help Ben, then he didn’t deserve it in return.

He felt no guilt as he watched the robber turn the corner, disappearing from his view.

The robber ran down Peter’s street, stopping in front of a car and pointing his gun at the driver.

“Get out of the car if you wanna live!”

Peter’s neighbor, Mrs. Burkas, quickly followed his instructions, and ran into her house.

Before the thief could get into the car, Ben came out of nowhere, and tackled him to the ground.

When the gun was knocked out of his hand, Ben punched him in the face, successfully knocking the criminal out.

Breathing heavily, he stood up from the ground, waving to Mrs. Burkas who was watching from the window.

As Peter and Ned turned the corner, there was a loud bang that was heard throughout the entire neighborhood.

Ben collapsed to the ground as the robber stood over him with his gun raised. Getting into the car, he drove off into the opposite direction, leaving Ben bleeding out in the snow.

“Call an ambulance!” Peter shouted at Ned.

He ran down his street, kneeling down next to his uncle with tears in his eyes.

“Uncle Ben?” His voice trembled.

“Hey, Peter.” He smiled weakly.

“I… I’m so sorry, Ben. I-it’s… it’s all my fault! I just –”

Ben clutched onto Peter’s hand tightly.

“It’s alright, son.” He coughed violently, closing his eyes. “I love you.”

As Ben took his final breath, Peter began to sob while continuing to hold his hand.

“Ben? Please? Please don’t leave me.”

 

 

Tony stared at the screen as the image of himself, Ben, and Richard appeared.

Holding back tears, he closed his eyes as his hands trembled.

“I’m terribly sorry, sir.” Jarvis said with a sympathetic voice. “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Rubbing his eyes, now opening them, Tony switched to a photograph of Aunt May and Peter together.

“We can start by helping them. Make sure the funeral expenses are fully covered, and wire transfer twenty grand to them every month from now on. Keep it anonymous.”

“Very well, sir. And I must inform you that the authorities have arrested Ben Parker’s murderer. He has been taken into custody.”

Tony let out a deep breath and nodded.

“Good. And give me an update every day on Peter’s condition. Poor kid can’t catch a break.”

 

 

After Peter and May had finally stopped crying, he secluded himself in his room while lying in bed.

This whole thing was his fault. Just stepping out of the way had killed his uncle.

He could have done something. But he didn’t. Only because Peter believed that the manager deserved to get robbed.

It was his responsibility to help people now. ALL people. No matter who they were, or what they’ve done. He wasn’t going to let something like this happen again. Not to anyone.

Peter couldn’t save Ben. But every time, from the second he had all his powers, he would be able to save everyone.

No one else would die because of him. Not even a criminal.

With great power, comes great responsibility.

Peter would remember that for the rest of his life. And there was no way he would do anything without following that rule.


	23. Stage Two

There wasn’t much to smile for after Uncle Ben died.

Which is why Peter was glad to still have Aunt May in his life. He wanted to be there for her as much as she would be there for him.

They needed each other.

It was also good to have MJ around. And Ned. Also, Jeremy.

Those were the most important people (and dog) to Peter right now.

One of his last family members, the girl he was in love with, and his best friends in the world.

The last thing Peter was going to do was let anything bad happen to them. They made the aftermath of what happened hurt a lot less.

He had surrounded himself with good, loving people.

Aunt May on the other hand, didn’t have anyone close to her except for Peter. All of her friends, who she had known since kindergarten, lived back in Canada.

Peter was the only close family she had.

He took the week off school to look after her. And in that week, she barely ate or slept. Tony had also been a big help that week.

There wasn’t any talk about powers, or money, or anything like that. He was just a friend who was there for the two of them.

Ned and MJ also picked up his homework. The week had been a lot easier on him and May thanks to the them.

On Friday afternoon, Peter stood in front of Ben’s grave, something he hoped to make a habit of. He wanted to visit him as often as possible. Just talking to him.

Believing in life after death gave Peter some reassurance. Knowing that his uncle was somewhere better was a nice feeling. But it wouldn’t erase the guilt. Nothing ever could.

It would remain with him for the rest of his life.

Helping other people was now his number one priority.

“I’m going to make you proud, Ben.” Peter smiled. “I know I said that a lot before, and I always meant it. May misses you. And Jeremy. And me, of course. What else? Uh… we don’t really have money problems now. So… that’s pretty cool. Tony gave us some cash to help out. He didn’t say that it was him when he was at the funeral, but MJ kind of figured it out. You know, she’s… really great. Great to have her around, and all.”

Peter wasn’t going to let Ben’s death push him over the edge to become a bitter, hateful person. That’s not what his uncle would have wanted.

Ben loved the world, and everyone in it. Good and bad people alike.

That was the standard Peter was going to hold himself to.

If he was truly going to make up for what he did, and live a life that his uncle would have been proud of, he would devote it to helping people. And trying to be as kind and forgiving as possible.

The reality is that Ben’s death didn’t change Peter.

 

Ben had made Peter what he is today. And none of that could ever be changed.

But Peter now understood what he meant when he was talking about responsibility.

Spider-Man was the result of that.

Five more months to go. And Peter was going to be ready.

“I’ll see you next week, Ben. I love you.”

 

 

The next day, on Saturday morning, Peter woke up to the sight of MJ, who was sitting next to his bed.

Today was the beginning of stage two.

“You had a pretty rough night.” She began. “But Stark made a drug that would speed up the process and get rid of the pain. No more fever.”

Peter realized that he was currently covered in sweat, and had an extremely sore throat. Memories from the night before came rushing back to him.

Most of which were him hovering over the toilet as he puked. MJ was there by his side through the entire thing.

“Thank you.”

Peter’s voice came out raspy. This part was definitely something he wasn’t going enjoy. It became clear that the sickness was going to become a regular thing.

Changing your biology was hard work.

“How’s Aunt May? Is she –” MJ interrupted him before he could continue.

“Still taking time off work, but she’s doing good. As good as she can, at least. And she was asleep, so she has no idea about this.”

He let out a sigh of relief.

“Good. She hasn’t slept in days. May must be exhausted.”

“Yeah.” MJ said softly. “I let her sleep, and I left some food out for when she wakes up.”

Thank God for MJ. She made this easier on the both of them.

“You’re the best.”

A light blush had spread to her cheeks at his words.

Peter got up from the bed with his head pounding. He groaned while rubbing his temples slowly.

“Please tell me stage two is better than the first one.”

She pulled out one of her notebooks from her bag, placing it on her lap.

He noticed that she always had one of those things with her. Never even showing them to anyone. Peter had spent hours thinking about what they could contain. But he respected her privacy. For the most part. Stealing a few glances in class wasn’t that weird.

“I guess. Control is going to be the most difficult. And they’ll just continue to get stronger for an entire month. You’ll have enhanced speed, agility, and reflexes. It should go nicely with your spider-sense, by the way.”

Peter stumbled to his feet, heading for the door.

He looked over to the clock on his wall, seeing that it was six o’clock in the morning. May wouldn’t be up for a few hours. Neither would anyone else on the street. That left them plenty of time on the empty street.

“Where are you going?”

“Training. I’m actually serious about this superhero gig. I have to be ready.”

“Fine. But drink this.”

MJ picked up a bottle of water and tossed it across the room to Peter, whose back was still turned.

Just as he pulled on his coat, he looked behind him to see the bottle coming towards him. But it was as if it was moving in slow-motion. Even MJ looked like she was standing still.

Peter caught the bottle with ease, ending the slow-motion he had experienced.

“Holy shit.” He cursed.

“It says here that your reflexes would kick in when your spider-sense does. Other than that, you don’t have anything to worry about. The running and jumping parts are going to be more difficult. And you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. You can still rest if you want.”

He shook his head in response.

“I want to. It’s what Ben would have wanted.”

MJ pulled on her own coat and headed out the door with him.

“But are you feeling okay?”

Peter smiled to himself, then looked at her.

“Yeah. I mean… I’m not over… what happened. And I don’t think I ever will be. But if I’m doing what Ben would have wanted, then I’m happy. That’s what really matters.”

He then placed his arm around her, pulling her into a hug.

“And thanks for helping us this week. You’re the best.”

MJ cleared her throat before returning the gesture.

“You already said that.” She whispered.

“I know. And it’s true.”


	24. Testing

It was no mystery that MJ was interested in Peter.

And now, she had to admit that he had become all the more fascinating. Not just because of his developing powers, but also because of how he was handling Ben passing away.

The first couple of days, she hated to see him that upset. Blaming himself for what happened was clearly killing him inside.

But it appeared to unlock something in him.

As weird as it was to think that, it was true.

Peter was still Peter at his core. Same beliefs, values, and his same optimistic self. That was the fascinating part. Other kids would have probably lost their minds in his position. Maybe even ruined their lives.

But not Peter.

The way he decided to handle it was by trying to protect people, and MJ admired that.

He was more confident in himself. However, it wasn’t a completely good thing.

The way Peter spoke of wanting to help people just for the sake of it scared her. He clearly had very little regard for his own safety now.

He went on and on about Ben’s lesson.

‘With great power comes great responsibility.’

Guilt was his motivation. And guilt could make people take some very drastic measures.

Peter said that he wanted to save everyone from getting killed. Even criminals. No matter what it cost him. That life would be anything but happy.

While he wanted to give up his happiness for others, MJ wanted him to be nothing but happy.

She was going to support him though. The boy she loved was a selfless person. It was probably one of the qualities she loved most about him.

So, MJ was going to keep her mouth shut about his whole stupid hero complex, and help him figure out his powers despite how impossible his goal was.

Right now, all he needed was a friend. That’s all she was going to be for him as long as it took.

The first test of the day was his speed.

While MJ sat inside their car, Peter stood on the outside, looking at her through the rolled down window.

“Is this really necessary?” He asked.

“A spider can run over one foot per second. It’s not fast for humans, but proportionately, it’s pretty impressive. And I can use the speedometer to see how you do. I’ll increase the speed periodically, so try to keep up.”

Peter gave MJ a bit of a head start. She had never actually driven a car before, but it wasn’t that dangerous. Nobody else was outside this early.

They had about three miles of a straight road to get the hang of things.

The speed she started off with was twenty miles per hour.

Peter caught up to her quickly with a light jog. To other people, it would have been a full-on sprint.

“How do you feel?” MJ called out from the window.

“Like I could run forever!” He said happily.

She then increased the speed to forty. A speed that would really qualify as ‘superhuman’. Once again, Peter matched the pace without breaking a sweat.

Instead of following her, he immediately took off into a full sprint, leaving MJ behind. Peter was clearly able to outrun a car.

It was amazing.

 

 

Peter felt like he was flying. Running through the snow effortlessly as he blew past house after house.

He wasn’t even getting tired.

Looking back behind him to see MJ smiling brightly, that only added to the sensation. Peter loved that smile. Which made it quite confusing when her face fell.

A tingling feeling came into the back of his head.

As time appeared to slow down, he involuntarily jumped up into the air, just barely avoiding getting hit by a truck.

Flipping over what must have been about fifteen feet in that air and ten feet in length, Peter landed gracefully in the snow, not slowing down at all.

Curiosity sparked by this phenomenon, Peter ran off to the sidewalk and jumped as high as he could. He stood on top of a roof as MJ passed by in the car.

“Show off!” She teased.

Chasing after her, Peter leaped from rooftop to rooftop while balancing perfectly. He wasn’t even slipping on the ice.

It was like he had done these things before. The movements felt natural.

These powers weren’t something he was going to use for his own gain. But he had to admit that this was amazing. And there was so much Peter could do with this.

He could catch a car that had been stolen.

Make it in time to stop someone from getting shot.

Those were things he couldn’t do to save Ben. But now, he could do all of that.

The very idea of it caused his smile to brighten even more.

Flipping down towards the ground, Peter slid on the ice back onto the road, stopping beside MJ.

“You know what I just realized?” She asked, sticking her head out the window.

Peter only shrugged in response.

“You could easily take on Eugene Thompson with your powers. Pretty awesome, right?”

The idea did sound awesome. He had made Peter, and tons of others at the school completely miserable. They would have deserved it.

“I know.” He sighed. “But I shouldn’t.”

“What? Why?”

“Well… I couldn’t fight back then, so I shouldn’t now. And as good as it would be, I can’t use my powers like that. You know what I mean?”

MJ nodded slowly before opening the passenger side door.

“I get it. Now, come on. I think you’ve had enough fun for one day.”

Peter flipped over the car, sitting next to her inside.

“I can’t use my powers to beat up bullies, but it wouldn’t be wrong to do a trick or two, right?”

“You’re a dork.” She deadpanned.

“A huge one. And I’m damn proud of it!”

“Yeah, yeah. I heard all of your conversations with Ned. Darth Jar Jar will never happen, and you need to get over it.”

“But that would make him so much cooler!” Peter whined. “And he jumped like, six meters into the air. Explain how a non-Force user could do that.”

“Again, in America, we use feet. And you could jump that high, and you’re not a Force user.”

Peter turned to her with a mischievous grin on his face.

“Or am I?”

“You’re not. And if this was Star Wars, I’d be way more powerful than you. Not relevant to the conversation, but it had to be said. Anyways, all gungan’s have incredibly powerful jumps. There goes your main argument.”

He raised his eyebrows at MJ curiously.

“And how exactly do you know so much about Star Wars?”

“Shut up. As I said, you and Ned talk a lot. And, don’t ever repeat this… I thought it sounded kind of… cool. Surprisingly good storytelling for a science fiction. Just –”

“We can talk about Star Wars all the time now!” Peter happily exclaimed. “Who’s your favourite character?”

“I’m not going to answer that.” She then rolled her eyes, and whispered. “Ahsoka’s pretty cool.”

Talking to MJ about this sort of thing was great. It gave him a much-needed distraction from… recent events. And if she though he wouldn’t bring this up as often as possible, she didn’t know him at all.

“I knew it!” He laughed. “You’re just as much of a dork as we are!”

Peter didn’t mean it in an insulting way. Just a way of friendly teasing.

“I’m infinitely cooler than you guys. A tea drinking, book reading, super genius, partial sci-fi dork, all rolled into one badass package. You, on the other hand, just have superpowers.”

“I know. You’re definitely the cool one. But you admit to your… dork-ery? Dorkness? Dork-itude? Whatever. Point is, you admit you’re a dork.”

“A huge one.” She smirked. “And I’m damn proud of it. Actually, that’s a complete lie. It’s my greatest shame in the world and I’ll literally kill Leeds if you tell him.”

He paused for a few moments, thinking over the sentence.

“Why wouldn’t you kill me?”

“To make sure no one screws with me afterwards. And believe you me, Peter. I could do it easily.”

“I believe you.” He said nervously.

“Good. I have a reputation to uphold. Can’t have you two turning me into a person with real emotions.”

“But… you are.”

“And no one’s ever going to know it but you. At least no other living person but you.”


	25. Design

“You want me to do what?” MJ asked.

Peter and MJ were walking down the nearly empty halls of the school on the way to the library. Most people had already left by that point. Even Ned.

It was his first day back to school since Ben passed away. MJ was glad that people weren’t picking on him today.

Not even Eugene Thompson.

What was far out of character for ‘Flash’, is that he actually apologized to Peter.

MJ was certain she was having a stroke at the time.

Peter looked around the hallway and entered the library. It was completely empty except for the librarian sitting at her desk.

Pulling her to the back corner of the room, Peter finally repeated what he said in the hallway.

“I want you to help me make a super suit. I mean I can sew and build stuff, but I can’t draw for shit. I’ll do all the work in making it and augmenting it to fit my powers. All you need to do is help me design it.”

MJ sighed, dropping her backpack on the ground and pulling out a sketchbook.

“What exactly did you have in mind?”

Peter happily sat down next to her.

“I was thinking something stretchy. You know, so it can fit me for a while.”

MJ quickly outlined Peter’s body on the paper. It was something she was used to doing at this point.

“Then you’re going to need something like neoprene. Like a wetsuit. Or maybe spandex. Both are flexible materials that should fit you. Even if you were to grow suddenly. What do you think?”

He looked over her shoulder, viewing the outline.

“That looks just like me!” He laughed. “That’s awesome!”

“Thank –”

The two were silenced by the librarian who let out a loud ‘Shh’.

“Sorry.” They whispered in unison.

“Anyway.” Peter continued. “I was thinking I could take the soles from a pair of running shoes. We could attach it to the foot to help out with traction.”

MJ drew pads on the bottom of drawing-Peter’s feet and turned back to him.

“Anything else?”

Peter placed his glasses on the table.

“I don’t really need these to control my sight much anymore, but I was thinking we could turn them into shifting lenses. It could automatically adjust to suit my vision.”

Moving up to his face, MJ drew two white lenses where his eyes would be, surrounding them with a thin black frame.

“You could fit them with a one-way plastic type thing. Maybe cover the rest of your face but still let you see. I think we have some of that stuff in white in our garage. What colours do you want?”

“Colours?” Peter asked.

“Yeah. Cap has the whole red white and blue. Stark usually has red and gold. Dr. Banner with the green and purple. You can’t go around just black and white. It still needs to look cool.”

MJ loved art. And she was going to take this just as seriously as her other sketches. Colour was a big part of things.

“How about… red and blue?”

“Okay.” MJ said, pulling out black, blue, and red sharpies. “But why those?”

“The spider that bit me were those colours. I think it’ll fit well.”

It was time for MJ to do most of the work now. She went over the pencil outline with the black sharpie, then drew a boot design that went up to his mid-calf. The whole suit would be one piece, but it just worked with the whole thing.

Moving to drawing-Peter’s waist, MJ drew a small belt that attached to the main part of his torso. The full part of the gloves went up part of his forearm, but separated up the rest of his arm then connecting to his belt.

“What parts do you want red? We can either make the boots, head, torso, outer arms red. Or make the inner arms, legs, and sides red.”

“First one. Red’s my favourite colour.”

Taking the other two sharpies, MJ shaded in the separating areas, created a perfect blend between red and blue. The eyes however, remained black and white.

She turned the sketchbook towards Peter to give him a better look.

“That’s amazing.” He whispered. “But it’s missing something. Can I…?”

MJ handed the book over to Peter as he grabbed the black sharpie.

She couldn’t see what he was doing exactly, but he slowly went over the entire thing.

Dropping it in front of her, he smiled proudly.

The red parts of the suit had been covered in a spiderweb pattern that was in thin black lines. And in the middle, he had placed a small spider logo.

It made the rest of it come together. It stood out more, and had kind of a classic vibe. Something a superhero from Captain America’s day would wear.

But it wasn’t goofy at all like that utterly ridiculous show suit.

And MJ was certain that Peter wouldn’t be dancing on stage while wearing it. At least she hoped he wouldn’t be doing that.

“Not bad.” She smirked. “Not bad at all. But we’re going to need a lot of spandex. If you want to make the web pattern look this good, it’ll take a little while longer. You’ll have all your powers by the time we finish making it.”

Peter raised his eyebrows at her.

“I said you didn’t have to help me make it.”

“I know. But I want to. And somehow, you’d probably end up burning your house down or destroying the village or something. Even with something as simple as sewing. You need me.”

“But I’ve sewn befo –”

“You need me, and we’ll leave it at that. Are you going to tell Leeds about this, or…?” She trailed off.

He shook his head in response.

“I’m not. He’s my best friend and all that. But I want to keep this to as little people as possible. Just you, Tony, and… probably all of the Avengers. Damn it!”

“Shh!” The librarian repeated.

“Sorry.” He whispered. “Damn it. Whatever. The point is, I’m not telling Ned. And I’m especially not telling Aunt May. If she knew what I was going to do, she wouldn’t let me. And I have to do this. But what if they figure it out?”

“Please.” MJ scoffed. “Leeds is passably smart, but not that smart. May won’t figure it out if you’re super careful. And everyone else isn’t a problem. It’s not like anyone pays any attention to you.”

Peter was a bit taken aback by her words.

“Ouch.”

“Except for me.”

She didn’t say that to him. But that’s what she wanted to say.

“It’s a good thing. People are the worst. Not one person knows anything about me, and I love it.”

“I know stuff about you.” He stated.

“You’re the exception. But back to this.” MJ gestured to the drawing of the suit. “You can get the running shoes, and build the lenses. I’ll worry about the one-way plastic and the spandex. I still have some from…”

MJ really regretted those last words.

What made it even worse it that Peter’s curiosity had obviously been sparked.

He looked like an eight-year-old boy who had been dropped in the middle of a candy shop.

“From what?” He asked excitedly. “Did you used to wear spandex? What was it for? Was it super embarrassing?”

“Do I need to threaten your best friend’s life again, or are you going to keep on asking?”

“Please.” Peter practically begged. “What was it?”

Gymnastics. MJ used to do gymnastics.

And by ‘used to’, she meant fairly recently.

And by ‘fairly recently’, she meant she still did. Because… reasons.

It was fun. And also, her other deepest darkest shame.

“It was for a rare activity call ‘none-your-business’. You can’t use mine, but I have some materials in red and blue. We can make it from scratch. But I swear to God himself, if you try to even figure out what I did, your suit will have to words ‘I’m a loser’ on your ass in huge, neon green letters. Do I make myself clear?”

Peter nodded quickly in response with his eyes wide,

“Very clear.”

“Good. And I could do a lot worse than that. But I’ll leave you guessing for effect.”


	26. Robbers

Peter felt like he was being choked to death.

As he loosened his tie, he let out a sigh of relief, finally being able to breath properly.

This comfort was short-lived when May came to a stop, tightening it again.

“You need to look your best, Peter. This is really important for work.”

Aunt May was having some sort of… thing tonight. Peter had no idea what it was called, but if it went well, she had a pretty good chance at getting a promotion.

Sure. They didn’t have problems affording food, clothes, or gas at this point. And that was all thanks to Tony. However, it was something May had been working towards for a few months now.

Apparently, the decision was based on whether or not Peter’s tie was killing him.

He wasn’t even going to try and understand why adults wore these stupid things.

“I know, May. I’m sorry. But not even a little bit?”

“Nope. It’s your job to look well-dressed, and adorable. Doctors love that sort of thing. And no sarcastic comments.”

As the two continued down the sidewalk, the building they were heading towards came into view. The area was illuminated by the streetlights since the sun had already gone down.

“But what if something REALLY good comes up? Like, an irresistible situation comes along, and I can’t help myself. How about then?”

“Still no. Please try to control yourself. I love you, but you tend to antagonize people.”

“Only when they deserve it.” He muttered under his breath.

Peter was almost never sarcastic to be rude. In the rare occasions he was, those people were being jerks. And they were adults. So… what was he supposed to do?

Stepping into the building, Peter was met with bright lights all over the place.

Even with his senses under control, it was a lot to take in at once.

Horrible music being played by a string quartet was one of the few clear things being heard over the chatter of doctors, donators, and some of May’s fellow nurses.

He was almost certainly the only kid there.

Not to mention that he was way out of his element. Sophisticated parties were just the worst. They never had anything like this back on the farm.

Peter felt like an outsider here already.

But he would have to suck it up and play along if May was going to get her promotion.

Who knows? Maybe some of these people could turn out to be nice.

Peter, using his super hearing, went through the many voices, stopping when he came to a particular one in the middle.

“And so, after a few hours of surgery, I was able to save the man’s life.” A deep voiced man laughed. “Of course, keeping my perfect, one hundred percent success rate.”

The man came across as somewhat arrogant. They way he talked hinted that he cared more about his reputation rather than saving peoples lives.

Peter hoped that they would steer clear from him.

But as luck would have it, Aunt May started walking towards this tall, dark-haired man. There were specs of grey on the sides of his head, and the ticking of his watch signaled that it was expensive.

Peter finally caught up to May when she was in the middle of talking to him.

“And this is my nephew, Peter.”

The man looked him up and down. He then extended his hand towards Peter.

“Peter.” He smirked. “Doctor Strange.”

Don’t make a joke! Don’t make a joke!

And it was a good one!

‘Oh! We’re using our made-up names? Then I am McFlono McFloonyloom.’

Peter gritted his teeth, putting on a fake smile and shaking back.

“Nice to meet you, sir.”

What a waste of a smartass comment!

“It’s ‘doctor’, actually.” He corrected.

Jackass.

“Sorry. Doctor. I –”

Peter stopped talking once he felt a familiar tingling feeling in the back of his head. His hearing focused on a group of people who were in the other building across the street.

They were getting into a vehicle while carrying bags. As they were thrown into the trunk of the vehicle, paper ruffled around. It was money.

And the building across the street was a back.

There was even a faint alarm coming from the building, and police cars were coming from about a mile away.

“I, uh… have to…” He gestured behind him. “Go to the… bathroom. I-I’ll be right back.”

Peter started walking quickly to the back door.

“The bathroom’s actually that way.” Strange pointed in the opposite direction.

“Thanks, doc!” He called back. “I’ll figure it out!”

Peter picked up a cloth napkin off of one of the tables, and once he was out of sight, he took off running in the alleyway while tying the cloth around the bottom of his face.

He quickly took off his jacket and tie, hanging them up near a garbage can.

The getaway vehicle’s tires screeched, driving down the street and passing every other car rapidly.

Peter stumbled at first, so he kicked of his shoes, choosing to run in his socks. The ground was dry, and the snow had already melted at this point. There was no chance of him slipping.

Without anything to stop him, Peter ran into the street and chasing after the robbers.

With his improved vision, he could see that they had guns with them. It was probably best to avoid those.

The getaway vehicle crashed into car after car, ramming all of them and coming out of the crowded area.

They had created a difficult path for one to get through.

But not for him.

Peter jumped over each obstacle with ease, clearing it in one jump. He landed in the intersection, and flipped into the air to avoid getting hit by another car.

“I’m sorry!” He yelled at them nervously.

The sirens were getting closer, so Peter locked his eyes back onto the robbers who were getting away.

He started sprinting again, leaving the police cars in his dust.

As Peter caught up to the getaway vehicle, running beside them, they rolled down the windows and pointed their guns at him.

“So, where are you guys headed?”

Instead of answering, the started to pull the triggers.

Time slowed down for Peter, and he leaped onto the roof of the car, grabbing onto it as tightly as he could.

“I really should have thought this through!”

The driver swerved from side to side, trying to make Peter let go.

The other two criminals rolled open the sunroof, and he fell down into the seat, sandwiched between two gigantic guys.

“Wait a minute!” Peter gasped. “This isn’t a taxi!”

The jokes were just to calm him down. On the inside, Peter was terrified. Being funny always made him feel better.

He quickly grabbed the guns, tossing them out through the open sunroof.

The guy on his left raised his fist to punch Peter, but he ducked at the last second, and the guy on the opposite was knocked out.

As the criminal attempted to punch Peter for a second time, he jumped into the empty front seat next to the driver.

He just got a very stupid idea. Hopefully, his spider-sense wouldn’t fail him.

Peter reached over and placed his hand on the wheel, causing it to turn towards the wall. He opened the car door before it was about to hit it, and fell outside, landing on the pavement.

More sirens were getting closer once again.

“Bye guys!” Peter shouted, running back towards May’s hospital thing. “We should do this again sometime!”

 

 

Peter threw the napkin into the garbage can, dusting himself off.

His hair was a complete mess. There was also a bit of dirt on his white shirt and his face. This was about as good as things were going to get.

His jacket and shoes weren’t a gigantic problem. Unfortunately they smelled like complete trash, and had a bit of mud stained on them. Peter slipped them on, not caring about ruining his once clean shirt in the process. Even though he looked slightly unpresentable, he was just glad that he was alive at the moment.

The big issue was the tie.

Peter walked back into the building and looked around in search of May. He could feel the disapproving eyes of the doctors on him as he made his way through the crowd.

His aunt placed her hand on his shoulder and brushed the dirt off of his face.

“What happened to you?” She whispered.

“I, uh… that bathroom was kind of dirty… and, uh… I’m really sorry, May. I just had to –”

May held up her hand, signaling for him to stop.

“Let’s go home and get you cleaned up.”

“But what about getting your promotion?”

She shook her head in response, pulling him towards the door.

“I don’t think they’ll want us around with you looking like… this. It’s not a big deal.”

He could tell from her tone that it really was a big deal. He had ruined months of her working towards this promotion, and had probably embarrassed her with his horrible appearance.

It was either do what Uncle Ben would have wanted, or help Aunt May.

This superhero thing wasn’t going to bode well for his personal life. Or the lives of other people around him.

Peter didn’t always want to do this. Running after every crime he heard was going to be hell, but he knew he had to.

No matter how alive it made him feel as Spider-Man, Peter Parker would end up getting the bad side of things.

But there wasn’t any choice.

He would have to do a lot to make up for this mess.


	27. Stage Three

“Wait, where are you going?” Peter asked, walking after Aunt May.

“The hospital. They gave me an extra shift.” She stated, grabbing her keys from the drawer. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning. I love you.”

Peter hugged her quickly before she headed out the door and was no longer in sight.

“I love you too.” He said quietly, even though she was already getting into the car.

No matter how constantly he apologized about the whole thing about the hospital party, May didn’t seem to really forgive him.

Of course, she wouldn’t.

The promotion gave her the option to work less hectic hours. And now she was stuck with a twelve-hour nightshift.

It happened a lot since then, and it was his fault.

What only added to his terrible mood was that tonight was the beginning of stage three. And he was feeling anything but well.

The headaches were the first thing to come.

Peter stumbled up the stairs towards his room where MJ was waiting for him.

The medicine got rid of the fever and sped up the process, but it tasted like shit. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything to do about the puking.

It was something that Peter was getting tired of. Any normal person would have felt the same way.

While he loved the surprise of what his new power would be the next day, he wished he could have gotten the rest of them at once.

However, biology couldn’t be changed in a day. No matter what kind of thing Tony and Bruce cooked up in their lab.

After tonight, he would only have three more of these things to go through.

Peter grabbed the handle on his bedroom door, walking in to see MJ sitting inside, reading from one of the files.

“Hey.” She said with a soft voice. “Has it started yet?”

He nodded slowly in response, his vision starting to darken.

Peter tried to enter his room, but was held back by something that was pulling his hand.

She curiously got up from her place, going over to him.

He looked down at his hand and saw that it was stuck to the handle. Nothing was holding it there, but he couldn’t move it at all.

“I guess it’s kicking in a bit early this month.”

Peter shook his body in an attempt to break free, but it amounted to nothing.

"What is this?!” He asked worriedly.

“It’s an adhesive effect. You’ll be able to stick to any surface, climb walls, and stuff like that. And it can work through your clothes… for some reason.”

He grabbed onto his wrist with his free hand, trying to pull it away, but that too became stuck.

“Damn it!”

Peter placed one foot on the door, which of course became stuck. And then came the next stupid idea. He placed his other of on the door, sticking himself completely.

There wasn’t any gravity weighing down on him.

Under different circumstances, this would have been pretty cool. Not when he’s feeling like shit.

“How do I get out of this?!”

MJ placed her hands on his shoulders, breathing calmly.

“You just need to relax.”

“Easier said than done!”

Peter continued to struggle, but came to a stop when MJ’s hands moved up to his face.

His eyes met hers, immediately distracting him from being stuck.

He sank into them, not knowing how to describe how they looked. Peter was never good with words.

They were a beautiful shade of brown that appeared to sparkle somehow.

Peter could swear that it was his imagination. And yet, MJ’s face started getting closer, beginning to close her eyes.

It was probably the headaches or the nausea, but he wanted it to be real.

Peter then unstuck from the door and fell down to the floor immediately, landing with a groan.

Much to his disappointment, the moment that was going through his head was over.

Still. Something good came out of it.

If he wanted to get unstuck, all he had to do was think of MJ.

“Are you okay?!” She asked, kneeling down next to him.

Peter gave her a weak smile in return.

“I’m just peachy.” He coughed violently to the side, feeling something in his throat. “Excuse me.”

He stood up quickly, rushing to the bathroom and puked into the toilet just in time.

“Oh, fuck.” Peter cursed before puking again.

The idea of possibly kissing her was thrown out the window at this point.

Who would want to kiss a guy who’s puking their guts out? Who would even want to kiss HIM of all people?

He was just Peter Parker.

The tiny dork at school who got the shit beaten out of him daily.

Peter accepted that her leaning forward for a kiss was nothing but his imagination. After all, this was MJ. She was too good for him anyway.

Black veins started reappearing on Peter’s arms, going up all the way to his neck.

He felt his blood turn as cold as ice, running painfully inside him.

After he puked for a third time, MJ came from behind him, rubbing his back softly.

“It’s a good thing I’m not going to remember this in the morning.” Peter joked.

“I’m really sorry about this.”

“What are you –”

He let out cry of pain as MJ stuck a syringe in his neck, replacing the ice feeling with a burning one.

Peter clutched onto the seat tightly, breathing heavily. In a few short seconds, the pain disappeared, along with the veins turning back to normal.

“Stark and Banner gave me that. It’s a new version of your medicine.”

“What the hell was wrong with the first one?” He groaned.

“Your immune system has been getting stronger with each stage. You would have burned through the old formula in a minute. This one was way stronger.”

“And hurts like a bitch.”

MJ started to run her hands through his hair, causing him to let out a content sigh.

“I’m sorry, Peter. What do you think we start practicing your stickiness in the morning?”

Peter puked once again before answering her question.

“I don’t think I need to. I have a good way to control myself now. Check it out.”

“Wait. You need to rest.”

He ignored MJ’s words, stumbling to his feet. Peter placed one foot on the wall with ease, then placed his other foot higher. Moving one in front of the other repeatedly, Peter stood on the ceiling, thinking about MJ’s eyes the entire time.

“Tada! I told you I’m fine. I…” Peter trailed off, dropping down onto the floor and hovering over the toilet to puke.

“Okay, tiger.” She said, pulling him to his feet. “Let’s get you to bed.”

MJ practically had to drag Peter over to his room as his legs were useless at this point. Dropping him onto his bed, she pulled the blanket over him.

Sleep overtook Peter immediately. MJ just stood over him, watching him inhale and exhale.

“I really thought I was going to kiss you there.” She whispered. “I mean… I wasn’t planning on it. But… the way you were looking at me and all… I was really hoping… whatever. Just fuck this shit. I love you, you stupid dork. And I’m pretty sure you love me back. Just give me a sign!”

MJ pulled up his desk chair and sat down next to him. She leaned in slowly and pressed a kiss to Peter’s cheek, smiling brightly.

“That’ll have to do for now. Just in case you’re listening, I hereby give you full permission to kiss me whenever you want. Just go for it. Fuck your stupid fluffy hair. Fuck your adorable smile. Fuck your genius brain, your stupid responsibility complex, and your superpowered ass. And fuck you for driving me crazy. Just… fuck.”


	28. Broken Trust

“I’m telling you, dude. She likes you.”

Peter and Ned walked down the busy halls of the school, on their way outside after last period had just finished.

One of them was obviously enjoying the conversation, tormenting their best friend.

The other… not so much.

“Explain just why the hell you’d think that.”

“Whenever I’m not around, you two are hanging out all the time. It’s crazy! And in the few months we’ve been friends, I haven’t seen anybody make you smile like that. Just go for it. I said it once, and I’ll say it again. It couldn’t be more obvious that Betty likes you back.”

Ned turned to Peter with his eyebrows raised.

“You think so?”

“Yeah! You’ll both be at Midtown next year, and you live right next door. It gives you something to talk about, bond over, and you can spend the whole summer together. It’s perfect!”

He then rolled his eyes at Peter, nudging him lightly on the arm.

“And are you ever going to do something about your… obsession?”

Other than Ben, Ned was the only person Peter had ever told about liking MJ. Somehow, he got the impression that Peter was a little bit obsessed with her. Complete bullshit, obviously.

“Nope. You’re the hero in the story who’s supposed to get the girl. I’m the wingman who gives great advice but never does anything for himself. Know your role.”

As the two turned the corner, now entering a near empty hall, Eugene Thompson and his friends blocked their way, looking down on them.

Except for Eugene. He was the small one. Even smaller than Peter. But he had the popularity, probably due to his amount of money. And he had friends who were the giants of the school.

Peter on the other hand, had powers. But he couldn’t use them. Not if he was going to do what Ben would have wanted.

“Sup, Penis Parker.”

He pushed Ned back around the corner, telling him to just go out the other way.

Ned followed his instruction, hesitantly leaving his friend behind.

“What do you want, Eugene?”

“It’s Flash!” He shouted back. “And it’s been a month since your uncle died. Your free pass has expired.”

“Any chance I could get a renewal on my pass?” Peter asked cautiously.

‘Flash’ and his friends didn’t respond. They just surrounded him, as per usual.

Peter let out a deep breath and dropped his backpack on the floor, preparing to take some hits.

He knew he could take them easily. Which is what made it a lot more frustrating.

‘With great power, comes great responsibility.’

Just because he could finish a fight with a bully, didn’t mean he should.

Flash was a dick. Not a criminal.

Peter didn’t feel afraid like he used to. So, that was at least something.

Time slowed down for him as a fist was coming towards his face. He could dodge it. He could even punch them back.

It took all the strength Peter had to fight off the instinct that almost overtook him. He was knocked down to the ground immediately, wiping his lip that had a small cut on it.

He would heal within minutes, but it really sucked.

Next, one of them stomped on his shoulder while everyone else started kicking him all over.

“Fuck him up!” Flash laughed maniacally.

Peter’s heart began to beat faster. He could feel his blood begin to boil in anger. His body kept telling him to fight back. Defend himself. But the memory of Ben told him otherwise.

There wasn’t anything wrong with just getting out of there though.

The kicks came slowly in Peter’s perspective. When he saw an opening, he bolted away from the assholes, standing outside of the circle they had created.

Best not to use his speed, otherwise that would raise some questions.

“Don’t fight back.” He whispered to himself. “Don’t fight back.”

Flash came charging at him with his fists cocked.

Peter just stepped out of the way, avoiding the punches.

It could easily pass for something a normal human could have done. His bully left a lot of time for someone to react. Peter didn’t even need to use his powers to do that.

Flash’s fists collided with the brick wall instead of Peter’s face. He also hit his nose against the corner, falling the floor and letting out a clearly exaggerated shriek.

And, as typical Parker luck would have it, one of his teachers, Mrs. Green came strolling down the hall to see Flash on the verge of crying, and Peter unharmed.

His wounds had healed instantly, and gave no impression of what had just occurred.

“What happened here?!” She scolded Peter with a glare.

“I –”

“Peter Parker did this to me!” Flash cried.

“N-no! I just –”

Mrs. Green held up her hand, signaling for him to stop talking.

“Save it, Mr. Parker. Is this true?” She asked the other boys.

They all nodded in unison.

“I’m VERY disappointed in you. Mr. Parker. The principal will want to have a talk with you and your aunt.”

 

 

Peter and Aunt May sat across from the principal, Ms. Lieder, in her office. Both sets of eyes were glued to him in disapproval.

“Care to explain your actions, Mr. Parker?”

“I swear, miss, this is all just a huge misunderstanding. Eugene, he ran into the wall and punched it himself. I didn’t do anything.”

“He broke his nose and thumbs.” She stated.

“Thumbs?” Peter questioned, making a proper fist with his hands. “Are you sure he’s punching right?”

“Not the time for being a smartass. And I don’t buy your story. Everyone else there claimed that you punched Eugene Thompson.”

"But Ned was there too! He'll back me up!"

"Mr. Leeds is your best friend. And he was nowhere in sight. He would do anything to help you, and I don't trust him either."

This wasn’t working out well for him at all. It was their word against his. Not even May seemed to believe him. Peter had to admit that he wouldn’t have believed himself either.

“I understand that you are going through a difficult time with you losing your uncle.”

Peter clenched his fists, causing a small crack to echo throughout the room. Using Ben in this conversation was a low blow.

“And, boys who lose their father figures tend to act out from time to time. Sometimes expressing their feelings with violence.”

This was everything wrong with this stupid school. Who in their right mind talked about feelings this much? Half the teachers didn’t do their jobs and claimed they were doing it for their feelings.

Peter hated this.

“I’m not acting out. And you have to believe me. I –”

His spider-sense tingled in the back of his head, hearing focusing on a conversation outside of the building.

Peter turned his vision towards the window. Outside in an alleyway, quite some distance away, two men were talking to one another. And their voices came out as clear as a bell.

“Give me your money, and you don’t have to get hurt, buddy.”

“I d-don’t have anything.” His voice trebled. “Please.”

He could tell from his heartbeat that he was telling the truth.

Instead of saying anything, the mugger brutally punched him in the face, throwing him against the wall and beating on him mercilessly.

“I’ll be right back.” Peter stated, heading towards the door.

“Don’t you dare leave, Parker.” She scolded.

He didn’t listen to her.

“If you step out that door, I’ll suspended you.”

Peter clutched onto the handle and turned to the principal.

“Go ahead.”

As soon as he closed the door behind him, Peter began to run as fast as he could towards the alley. He took out his mask from his pocket, sliding it on and pulling up his hood.

The mask had come along quite nicely.

He was able to get the eyes to adjust automatically, almost mirroring his expressions perfectly.

It wasn’t fancy like an Iron Man suit. No AI, or HUD. It was simple. Hopefully, the rest of the suit would work out just as good as the mask did.

Peter heard the man’s cries increase as the mugger only became more brutal. He wasn’t showing any mercy.

He jumped into the air, landing on the side of the building and sticking to it with ease.

Peter crawled along the side of the wall on his fingers and toes, just like a spider.

When he was directly over the mugger, he let himself go, falling down onto him and kicking him to the ground.

Peter didn’t have super strength, but he could put a lot of damage into his kicks. It was something that came with the enhanced agility.

The mugger groaned on the pavement, trying to get up.

He received a knee to the face, knocking him out cold before he could do anything.

The man who was being mugged was trembling on the ground, bruised severely. Peter extended his hand to help him up, but he flinched away, looking as if he was afraid.

“S-s-stay away.”

Peter raised his hands in the air, signaling that he wouldn’t do anything.

“Okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to help. Are you okay?”

“Y-y-you’re a freak! A psycho!”

“Wait. I swear, I’m not going to…”

The man took off running before he could finish the sentence.

“I’m not a freak.” He sighed.

 

 

May slammed the door behind her as she walked back into her house, effectively waking up Jeremy from his third nap of the day.

Peter reopened the door, entering the home while chasing after his aunt.

“May. I’m really sorry. I just really had –”

“A whole week, Peter!” She shouted at him. “Suspended! For a whole motherfucking week!”

“I’m sor –”

“Peter Benjamin Parker.” May said sternly. “If you apologize one more time, I swear to God, you will have far bigger problems than facing a suspension. Why did you have to fight that boy?!”

Peter felt as if he was being buried alive.

“You really think I did that?” He asked with a quiet voice.

“I didn’t want to believe it, but you’re a Parker! Your dad was the exact same way! And Ben too! Always getting into fights! Where the hell did you go?! What the fuck was so important that you had to get suspended for?!”

There was no way he was going to tell her. He wasn’t even sure if she would believe him if he told her the truth.

May’s level of trust in him wasn’t exactly high off the charts at this point.

Peter only sighed, shaking his head.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why am I not surprised? Next time, you’d better think about what Ben would have wanted before you make a decision! Just… go to your room. I don’t want to see you for a while.”

He turned to the stairs, heading up to his room whole Jeremy followed close behind.

The whole reason he did that was because it was what Ben would have wanted.

And May could never know that.

He would have to settle for pissing her off instead.

In his entire life, Peter had never seen Aunt May that angry.

Collapsing onto his bed, Jeremey buried his large face into his side, whimpering. Peter gestured next to him, and his dog happily jumped up next to him.

If only she knew what was going on. He wanted to tell her more than anything. He wanted her to believe him.

But he had broken her trust. He lied to her. And, unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last time.


	29. MJ's Revenge

MJ was anything but mature.

And even though she had just turned fourteen, it was still socially acceptable for someone her age to be quite petty about things.

Things like a group of jackasses getting her future husband suspended after some tiny little bitch broke his thumbs and nose by himself in the most ridiculous way possible.

MJ was pulled from her thoughts by a loud snap coming from her hands.

Looking down, she realized that she had accidentally broken her pencil in half just by thinking about Eugene Thompson and what he did to Peter.

Without having a Peter to ogle at school, MJ was going to be VERY unhappy this week.

And an unhappy MJ was a crazy MJ.

Crazier than her normal state, that is.

There were five guys in total who were responsible for taking Peter away for the week. She didn’t even bother to remember the names of four of them.

MJ refused to acknowledge their existence.

Eugene Flash Thompson was just too great an evil to ignore.

But, back to the point.

By the end of the day, Eugene would regret all the things he did.

MJ would let his friends live, of course. Not out of mercy, but so they would have to live out their lives as the pathetic clumps of bone and mush they really were. They were nothing without Thompson.

The others weren’t worth her real effort. And they would most certainly fail this school year. They would destroy themselves.

MJ’s one and only goal was to either kill Eugene Thompson, or make hm wish he was dead.

Years and years of notebooks piling up were finally going to be put to use.

With a few minor modifications. Obviously, she wasn’t going to murder him. The idea, however, just brought a smile to her face.

But MJ was going to put an end to the bullying. For good.

Not just for Peter. For everyone else in the school. Mostly for Peter though.

 

 

Flash’s house was pretty much everything MJ expected of it.

Incredibly large, surrounded by expensive cars, and screamed “we’re douchebags”.

MJ’s family lived well, but they weren’t pretentious assholes about it. Flash, on the other hand, looked down on people who were less fortunate than him.

It was extremely late. Late enough that his parents would have gone to bed. Even the butler and other staff were out of her way.

Who the fuck even had a butler?! And a chef?!

Probably people who lacked every basic life skill.

She was sitting in the dark, as usual, in the corner of Flash’s room while watching him fast asleep in his bed. It was a sight MJ did NOT appreciate.

Looking down at her watch, MJ saw that it was just past three in the morning. It was time to begin. But before she had the talk with him, she had to let him know that she meant business.

MJ crept over next to the bully, holding a damp rag over his face, sedating him for good measure.

She then took an electric razor, grabbing his greasy hair. MJ closed her eyes in disgust, pretending that she was holding onto a dead frog or something. Anything was better than this.

MJ made short work of his hair, leaving some left on the sides, making it look far worse.

She didn’t have anything against bald people. Her aunt Jess had kind of a boyfriend who happened to be bald. And she quite liked him. Not to mention many other family members.

But Flash went on and on about how much he loved his hair. No matter what other people said, he thought it was the greatest thing to behold.

Moron.

MJ kept a small bottle of hand sanitizer in another one of her pockets. She drained the entire thing after touching his hair.

She had a few other surprises. A temporarily sealed box would be staying behind in his room. That part came later on.

To wake Flash up, MJ grabbed onto one of his broken thumbs with one and hand held her other hand over his mouth to muffle the screaming.

He deserved to be in pain after he had hurt all those people.

MJ twisted swiftly, causing him to wake up in a heartbeat, barely muffling his scream.

It was an incredible pleasure to her ears.

“Rise and shine, Eugene.” She said sternly. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut up and listen. Do you understand?”

He tried to speak through her hand, shouting at the top of his lungs.

In response, MJ twisted tighter, turning his shouting into another cry.

“Do you understand?” She tried again.

He nodded quickly in fear, tears of pain forming in his eyes.

“Good.” MJ sat back in the chair, glaring at him. “My first thought was to force you to tell the truth about Peter’s suspension. But the teachers in our school are too lazy to change anything. And your dear old parents would probably pay the school. Much like what they do with your grades.”

“Penis Parker?” He asked with a trembling voice.

She took a rock out of her backpack, throwing it at his crotch.

“His name is Peter!” MJ practically yelled, losing her composure for a moment. She cleared her throat, returning to her calm persona. “His name is Peter. And from now on, you’re going to stop treating him like the way you do. That goes for everyone else in the school.”

“You.” He practically growled. “Penis Parker’s a little bitch. Do you –”

She quickly got up from her chair, punching him in the nose as hard as she could. The nose which just happened to be broken.

“Never… EVER… talk about Peter that way. This has been a long time coming. You have almost completely destroyed his relationship with his aunt because of your lies. At least he’ll always have me.” MJ sighed happily, letting go of her anger for just a second. “You deserve everything I’m doing. I would literally kill you right here if it wasn’t for Peter. So… after his suspension is over, you’ll shut up and stay away from him. For good. Or I swear you’ll regret it. Needless to say, you’d better keep your mouth shut about me breaking into your home and threatening you. And don’t tell anyone about what I said about Peter. Do I make myself clear?”

Flash nodded again, clutching onto his nose while his thumb began to become swollen.

“Good.” MJ pulled out some nose plugs from her pocket and sedated him once again. “Time for the fun part.”

The nose plugs were a necessary thing.

Picking up the box, MJ dumped the contents onto his face. A freshly caught skunk who had walked through horseshit.

Was it overkill? Absolutely not!

Besides. She had to use it something after Luke found it in their backyard. What was a girl to do?

She didn’t feel any guilt whatsoever.

Only pride.

MJ slung her backpack over her shoulder, exiting his room through the window.

Dropping down into the backyard, she walked around to the driveway, hopping over the front gate.

These people really were pretentious assholes.

His stupid adoptive parents had massive enough egos to put their family name on the front.

And MJ hated the Osborn’s even before Eugene Harry Osborn-Thompson came prancing down the halls of the school.

Pretty much every sane person in the city did.

To make things even worse, all Eugene had to do in order to get his way in school, or anywhere else for that matter, was tell people his family name.

That was yet another reason to be proud of what she did.

That victim the other day may have called Peter a psycho.

But MJ was definitely the crazier of the two.


	30. Pins and Needles

“Ow!” He flinched.

“Sorry. But you have to hold still.”

Peter and MJ were locked in his room, working on the suit. They had both finished their portion earlier than expected, but there were a few adjustments to be made.

The only missing details were the webbing pattern on the body, and the emblems on the front and the back.

And they had to stitch together some other pieces.

This resulted in him putting on the suit while she stabbed him with pins and needles.

Much to MJ’s disapproval, he kept squirming the entire time.

“How does it feel?”

Peter looked down at himself, covered in red and blue spandex.

“Surprisingly comfortable. But what are these things for?” He asked, gesturing to a valve on each of his wrists.

MJ had put them there so he could use his webs while in the suit.

She didn’t tell him yet because he liked not knowing what power he would get the next day. She also left some extra room in the suit to accommodate for the upcoming growth spurt and putting on the muscle.

That last thing hadn’t caused her that much thought up until now.

Peter Parker with muscles?

It was pretty hard to imagine.

And she liked him skinny. It made him look adorable.

Not to mention that she never really understood why people found them attractive.

MJ found Peter attractive for who he was. Muscles would just ruin him in her opinion.

But it was something she’d have to get used to.

She was just going to admire small and adorkable Peter while she still could.

MJ didn’t feel proud about this, but she enjoyed seeing him in the suit.

Spandex was very… form fitting. Even with the extra room.

And she was a fourteen-year-old girl. Focusing on the physique of a boy she loved was normal.

MJ loved every inch of him.

Especially his ass.

Admitting that was the difficult part.

Once it was out there, it was hard to stop thinking about it.

She also enjoyed being so much taller than him.

Sadly, that would change too.

Change sucked. But MJ would still love him despite the downgrade in his physical appearance.

“You’ll see. Just trust me. You’ll be glad I added them.”

“Can you at least give me a hint? Is it going to help out with my next power?”

Peter’s next stage, which would be coming up in a few days, wasn’t exactly a power.

There wouldn’t be any phase where he had to learn to control his newfound ability and test it out.

The only thing that would happen is that his bones and organs would become more durable. Almost unbreakable.

MJ was glad that he would be getting some extra protection. The suit was made out of spandex, not vibranium. And it gave her some extra comfort to know that he could dodge bullets.

“No hints. I swear, it’s like you’re five.”

“Five and a half!” He whined in a fake high-pitched voice. “If you won’t tell me what they’re doing there, can you at least tell me what you used to wear spandex for?”

MJ took the pin and proceeded to poke him in the ass, causing him to let out a quick shriek.

“Sorry! What about school? What did I miss during my suspension? When did Eugene Thompson start wearing a hat everywhere?”

When she shaved his head for getting her future husband suspended.

“I don’t know.” She said innocently. “It started two days after you left. Other than that, nothing much happened. How about you? Is Aunt May still pissed off?”

Peter sighed, shaking his head.

“It’s, uh… it’s complicated. She’s not exactly mad anymore, but she still doesn’t trust me.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier just to tell her about your powers?”

“No way!” He exclaimed. “We’ve been over this. She can never know. EVER.”

Stupid responsible Peter Parker.

He was practically miserable now that Aunt May and him were starting to separate. And after Ben died, he was incredibly clear about how much she mattered to him.

Losing a father figure was bad. Losing a mother figure too was just unfair.

Nothing was going right for him.

Except for things with Ned and herself.

She used to dislike Leeds, but if having him around gave Peter some spec of happiness, it made MJ happy.

“Any idea of how you could fix this?”

“Well… I guess I could try to get a job.”

“A job?” She asked in disbelief. “You’re only thirteen.”

“Basically fourteen.”

“Still thirteen. And why would you need a job? Stark’s been helping you out.”

“I know. But she would see that I’m responsible. Because I sure as hell can’t tell her I’m responsible in the superhero way. I just want her to be proud of me, you know? So, if I got a job and did well, she’d see that I can be an adult about stuff.”

This was ridiculous.

May should have been proud of Peter. And she should have believed him.

But who even believes kids these days?

“Have you applied anywhere?”

“Tons.” He responded without skipping a beat. “I said on my applications that I was sixteen and could drive. Which isn’t a total lie. I CAN drive. Just not legally. I might have some luck at Joe’s Pizza. Ironically, it’s owned by someone named Aziz.”

“I know that place. Do you really think you could go from door to door on a tiny motorized bike saying ‘Pizza time’?”

Peter’s frown quickly turned into a grin.

“I think that has a nice ring to it. I’m also trying to get a job in photography. No luck so far.”

“Maybe you could try freelance? Instead of applying, you’d just have to meet with the Editor of a paper or news site, and sell your photos. You could get a few hundred bucks for each one. And you wouldn’t have to worry about being late because you won’t have real hours.”

He immediately scoffed.

“I wouldn’t be late.”

“I know you, Peter. You would skip school just to help an old lady cross the street. You’d be late for work every single day.”

“But I – ow!”

Peter had shifted once again. Getting stabbed this much was his own fault.

“I said hold still.”

MJ grabbed his hips, turning him around to the proper angle.

An angle which just happened to give her a view of his ass.

It was strictly for work purposes.

“Sorry.”

Stabbing was also a good way to get off a certain topic.

Peter didn’t bring up getting a job or being late for the rest of the day.

MJ loved him, but he was easy to control.


	31. Stage Four

Peter descended the stairs, making his way to the door in hopes of avoiding Aunt May.

Things between them had only become worse and worse as the weeks went on. It was making him completely miserable.

Worst of all, there was nothing he could do to fix it.

“Going over to Ned’s?” May questioned from the couch, keeping her eyes glued to her book.

Peter stopped in his tracks, letting go of the door handle.

“Yeah. I’m going to be sleeping over.”

In reality, he was going to be sleeping over at MJ’s. Her parents were out of town for two days. And since May was home, he couldn’t go through the transformation without her knowledge.

Her place would keep it a secret.

The symptoms gave no indication of superpowers, but it definitely set off some red flags.

He had to get there soon. The headaches had begun, but were in their lightest stage.

“You’re only allowed to go if you apologize.”

Damn it. Things like this made it far more complicated.

“I can’t, May. I’d…” Peter trailed off and sighed. “I’d love to apologize. I want things to go back to the way they were. But I’m not going to apologize for something I didn’t do. I’m trying to tell the truth here.”

He hated that he was making things worse.

She wanted him to be honest, and whether she liked it or not, this was it.

“Stop lying, Peter. We’ve been over this. You were caught in the act, and you were suspended. Who am I supposed to believe? You, or five other boys and a teacher?”

Five other boys who happen to be the biggest assholes in the school and a teacher who never does her job.

Obviously, she should believe him!

But Peter shouldn’t talk back to her in that way.

“Please.” He practically begged. “I’m not lying. And I really, REALLY need to get going.”

He would have been at MJ’s place by now if it wasn’t for this conversation.

“Then tell the truth.” May responded, putting down her books and getting up from the couch. “I love you. But you’re on extremely thin ice.”

Peter’s vision began to get darker. He was too late, and he hadn’t taken his medicine yet. Clutching on to the doorway, Peter used what little strength he had left to stop himself from throwing up or collapsing.

“I…” He barely got the single word out. “Just let me…”

The headaches had gone from bad to unbearable almost immediately.

Peter pulled down the sleeve of his flannel discreetly in order to cover up the black veins that were reappearing.

He also started to become extremely pale, blood turning almost as cold as ice in a heartbeat.

His superpowers wouldn’t do him well at all in this situation. He was far too weak.

May’s subtle angry expression was replaced with a worried one.

She reached out with one hand, feeling his forehead.

“Are you okay? You’re burning up.”

“I’m…”

Peter couldn’t finish speaking. Instead, he fell down to the floor and held on to his stomach.

May got down to her knees, hovering over her nephew.

“I’m taking you to the hospital.” She said quickly.

“No!” He replied instantly. 

He would be fine in the morning. And a hospital wouldn’t be able to help. Only MJ understood what to do, and she had his medicine.

“I need to get to MJ’s.” His voice came out incredibly quiet.

“Who?”

Without warning, Peter puked onto the floor.

“Michelle Jones. Just… call her. I…” He stopped speaking for a moment and coughed violently. “I need her. Please, May.”

 

 

MJ hurriedly walked into Peter’s room to see him shivering on the bed.

Aunt May clearly had no idea what was happening to him. Thankfully, MJ already came up with an excuse for his condition.

She took the needle that was full of his medicine out of her backpack, and moved across the room, sticking it in his neck without saying a single word.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” May shrieked.

The veins on his arm and neck disappeared instantly, and his temperature went back to normal levels. Only headaches, fatigue, and puking.

She wanted him to feel better more than anything, but any improvement was fine with her.

“It’s his medicine. Stark made it for him.” MJ’s excuse wasn’t going to be a complete lie. “He was visiting at his lab a few weeks ago and accidentally got sick. He’ll be fine in the morning. No side-effects whatsoever.”

May was definitely inclined to believe her based on the results.

And this way, she would still be in the dark regarding Peter’s powers.

“Tony Stark?! Why the hell didn’t he say anything?!”

“We didn’t want you to worry, May.” Peter said weakly. “She’s been taking care of me.”

“So has Stark. He’s had to leave suddenly in school to puke his guts out, but it’s all over now.”

It was a temporary solution to explain the constantly leaving. It definitely wouldn’t last given how often he’d be leaving, but they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.

And she would make sure to give Peter his medicine earlier from now on.

“Is that where you were going when you left the principals office?” May asked.

MJ locked eyes with Peter for a moment and nodded.

“Yep. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you. I just…” He yawned, closing his eyes. “I…”

Sleep abruptly overtook him, leaving Aunt May and MJ by themselves.

“You might want to leave him a note or something. He never remembers anything when he wakes up in the morning.”

May looked up from Peter to face MJ.

“You’ve been helping him?”

She scoffed.

“He wouldn’t survive a day without me. In school or otherwise. Also, I know you’re still new to this country, so I’ll cut you some slack. But Eugene, the kid who broke his nose and all, his family are gigantic assholes. And the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. If it means anything, Peter definitely didn’t hurt him. He’s way too nice to do something like that. But Eugene is bad enough to lie about it.”

May appeared to be going over the events.

Her nephew supposedly being sick probably changed her perspective on things.

 

 

Peter opened his eyes the next morning, but instead of being greeted by MJ, Aunt May was the one sitting next to him.

She quickly shot out of her chair and pulled him into a hug, squeezing him tightly.

“May?” He questioned.

This sudden gesture was quite out of character given the recent state of their relationship.

“I’m sorry, Peter. Tony and Michelle told me everything.”

Oh, crap.

“They did?”

“Well, they did. After I yelled at him for making you sick. And he explained about the Osborn’s. I should have believed you.”

This was a lot of information to take in with his deliriousness.

“So… what did they say I was sick with?” He asked cautiously.

“Some kind of temporary bug.”

A spider.

“And nothing else? Did they say anything about… side-effects?”

“Only that there weren’t any long-term effects. I’m just glad you’re going to be okay.”

Peter let out a sigh of relief as he finally returned the gesture to his aunt.

If she still didn’t know about his powers, and thought he was telling the truth, things could finally go back to normal between them.

“I love you, May.” He said into her shoulder.

“I love you too.”


	32. Psycho?

After school, Peter made his way down the sidewalk along with Ned and MJ.

The three of them were heading over to his house for a Star Wars marathon.

During lunch, he had accidentally spilled the beans on MJ being a secret fan, she had immediately joined in on their debate at their table.

According to her, she wasn’t coming over for fun. Just because she wanted to prove them wrong about every little thing.

On the other side of the road, Flash was purposefully avoiding the group. Any normal day would have seen him making his friends beat up Peter. Or Ned. Or anyone.

Much to the disappointment of his friends, today was not one of those days.

“Why aren’t we going to beat up Penis Parker?” One of them asked.

Flash immediately flinched at the mention of that name.

“C-call him Peter. We have to.”

MJ had done a real number on him.

“Whatever. Let’s get him.”

The four of them started to walk across the street, but were stopped when they were pulled back by Flash.

“We can’t do that!” He exclaimed with fear in his voice. “You guys don’t understand. Some seriously bad shit will happen to you if something happens to him!”

Involuntarily, Peter was able to hear every word going on between the bullies. Nothing about it made sense.

What kind of bad shit would happen to them?

And why the hell was Eugene Thompson talking as if he feared for his life?

“What’s gotten into you, man?” The other questioned.

Peter heard that his heartbeat began to increase in pace. Also, his breathing became heavier and his hands trembled slightly.

“I c-can’t tell you the whole story. But there’s a damn psycho here!” He hissed. “You need to listen to me! If we do something, we’re as good as dead! I’m not joking about this!”

What psycho?

Eugene was genuinely terrified of someone in the school. But who was he even talking about? And who on earth could scare someone with that much money and control?

Peter stopped focusing on the conversation and was brought back to reality when Ned and MJ’s friendly bickering became a little too loud.

“Han shot first!” Ned practically shouted.

“You can clearly see that Greedo’s blaster went off half a second before Han’s! I swear, if you payed more attention to the movie, we wouldn’t have to go watch it! Peter, back me up here.”

The two turned to him to see that he was partially distracted.

“Are you okay, dude?” He asked.

“Uh… yeah. I’m all good. But have you guys noticed something weird about Eugene Thompson? And I mean weirder than usual.”

Ned shrugged.

“Other than the hat? Nothing.”

MJ glanced across the street where Eugene himself and his friends were talking quietly.

“Okay. Never mind.”

 

 

Hours later, when the marathon was over and MJ had gone home, Peter and Ned sat on the couch.

Ned’s eyes were glued to the tv while going on a rant about God knows what, while Peter’s thoughts were still focused on Eugene Thompson’s words.

He couldn’t manage to make heads or tales of the conversation.

“Hey, Ned?” Peter asked, putting an end to his speaking. “Have you ever seen Eugene Thompson… afraid? Ever?”

Ned raised his eyebrows in curiosity.

“No. Why?”

“Has he ever been threatened by someone? Like a teacher or a student?”

These questions definitely sounded extremely peculiar to someone who didn’t have the same context as Peter.

Ned probably thought he was crazy.

“No one’s that stupid. I wouldn’t be surprised if his dad would ruin the life of a person who did. Where’s this coming from?”

Peter let out a deep breath, using his super hearing to find out if May was out of earshot.

She was in the basement listening to music while doing laundry.

They were in the clear to talk about this.

He leaned forward and whispered.

“On the way home, I overheard Eugene’s friends call me Penis Parker. So, nothing out of the ordinary. But then, he said that they have to call me Peter.”

Ned looked at him sceptically.

“But that’s your name.”

“And he never uses it! When they were talking about coming to beat me up, he told them they couldn’t. He said that some bad stuff would happen to them if they did. Courtesy of someone he called a psycho! To make things crazier, he was actually scared that they would kill them! And that person is at our school!”

He immediately facepalmed.

“You do realize that you’re talking about someone trying to kill an Osborn, right? Either a teacher or student is going to kill Eugene and his friends if they’re assholes to you, or call you Penis Parker. Do you even hear yourself?!”

“I know it doesn’t make any sense. But I have seriously good hearing. I guarantee that’s what he said. And people hate him! Is it really that far-fetched that one person in the school would be crazy enough to want to kill him?”

Ned paused for a moment before answering his question.

“I guess… it could be possible. But I’ve known most of these people since kindergarten! And they’ve all done stuff to him. Abe and Charles filled his locker with mayonnaise. Cindy put a snake in his backpack. Michelle hit him over the head with a textbook this year, and she knocked three his teeth out when she was six. Sally even threw his phone off of a cliff on a fieldtrip. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Sure. Michelle was the only one who ever caused physical violence against him, but she wouldn’t have threatened him to the point he was afraid of getting murdered! None of them would!”

“You’re right.” Peter sighed. “MJ’s a lot of things, but she’s not crazy.”

“Exactly.”

He wanted to think that. He really did.

However, MJ made the most sense.

It was extremely out of character for her. She would never actually threaten to murder somebody.

But there was a feeling in the back of Peter’s head that he just couldn’t shake.

“I don’t know, dude. Look at it this way. Who hates Eugene more than anyone? Who is openly violent towards him? Who jokingly threatens people all the time? Who in the school carries around a notebook that’s probably filled with tons of secrets?”

Ned’s eyes widened slightly.

“MJ.” He whispered. “But it sounds like whoever threatened him was doing it for you. If it was MJ, that would mean that she was totally obsessed with you or something! And believe you me. No one, and I mean no one can match the kind of crazy obsessive love that you have for her! The argument goes right out the window when you think of it logically.”

“I know, I know.” Peter groaned. “It’s crazier than one of Don Cherry’s suits.”

Ned gave him a confused look.

“I guess that joke is only funny in Canada. Or if you’re a hockey fan. But, whatever. It’s MJ. We could just go and ask her about it.”

Peter stood up from the couch and moved to grab his shoes off of the ground. Ned followed him around closely.

“Go where?”

“To her place. It’s only like, fifteen minutes away.”

He crossed his arms and stared back at him.

“How do you even know where she lives? On school forms, she writes her address as ‘none of your business, asshole’.”

Peter closed his eyes and spoke quickly.

“I sometimes visit her and hang out there, okay?”

“You guys hang out at her place?” Ned asked in a teasing voice.

“Oh, shut up.”


	33. Equally Crazy

“So, what exactly are we going to do?” Ned asked as they walked up to MJ’s front door.

He couldn’t believe how big the house was. But it made more sense once Peter told him the size of her family.

“Just talk to her.” Peter responded, knocking loudly. “We don’t know if she threated Eugene, but if she did, it’s less of a crime and more of a public service.”

Ned had to agree with Peter on that part. But he knew next to nothing about Michelle despite knowing her since kindergarten.

This was a terrible idea.

However, there was no stopping Peter, so Ned was forced to tag along on this crazy-fest.

“Are you sure any of them are home?”

Peter closed his eyes for some reason. To Ned, it looked as if he was trying to read a person’s mind or some superpowered thing.

It was a load of bullshit, obviously. But his best friend having powers would have been pretty damn cool.

He opened his eyes, turning back to Ned.

“The house is empty.”

“Okay. Then let’s get go – what are you doing?”

Peter got down on one knee, placing his hand under the flower pot and pulled out a spare key.

“We’re getting inside.” He stated, unlocking the door.

“Dude!” Ned exclaimed. “We’re breaking and entering!”

Love really did make people crazy. Peter 'follow the rules' Parker was willing to break into someone's home just because the girl he was in love with lived there!

And he always noticed little things about her. Seriously. He pointed out facts about her that no normal person would ever notice! And they were things MIchelle would never tell him! Or even care to tell him!

Like how she had a rotation of hair elastics. And how she alternated the hand she wrote with. Two days right hand and one day left.

How on Tuesday's and Thursday's her sister would pick her up in the same spot.

In conclusion, his best friend was obsessed, and completely crazy.

“Wrong. We’re not breaking anything. We’re just entering. Last time I checked, that’s not a crime.”

The door swung open easily, and the two walked inside turning on the lights.

Ned hated the idea of doing this. Half of him was pretty sure that Michelle Jones was a vampire. And he didn’t appreciate the idea of going into someone’s house without their permission. He was old-fashioned that way.

“I’m pretty sure this is trespassing!” He whisper yelled. “I know back home you could just enter your neighbors house for a pot of tea, but this isn’t the country! Someone would try to wack you with a baseball bat for setting foot on their lawn!”

“Believe me, I know. Her neighbor thought I was trying to rob her so she sent her dogs after me. And she happened to have a baseball bat.”

He wasn’t even going to ask. Some situations were just too scary to think about.

“What are we even doing here? I thought we were going to talk to her.”

“We were. But plans can change. We’ll search the main floor together, then I’ll check the basement, and you check the upper floor. Keep an eye out for anything that would scream ‘psycho’. Especially some of her notebooks.”

Ned’s curiosity was immediately sparked.

Michelle had one of those notebooks wherever she went. No one knew what was in them. It wasn’t that weird to want to know what was in them. The whole school thought about it at least once.

So, yeah. Ned was on board with the plan now.

“Got it.”

The main floor was the least Michelle thing that Ned could have imagined.

There were family photos in every room of Michelle, her brothers, her sisters, and tons of other family members.

It wasn’t even dark and depressing.

Even the living room had a piano in it!

The first part of their search proved to be extremely uneventful.

Ned however, did learn that Michelle wasn’t a vampire or a robot or anything like that.

And maybe she wasn’t as creepy as people thought. Peter often said how amazing and nice she was.

He couldn’t understand the amazing part, but the nice part was backed up by the photographs.

“Let’s split up now. MJ’s room is the last door at the end of the hall. Her siblings and parent’s rooms should stay off limits, but search them if you come up short.”

“How do you know where her room is?” Ned questioned.

Peter didn’t say anything else. He just descended into the basement, leaving his imagination to run wild.

Hanging out at her house? Check.

Knowing about a spare key? Check.

Knowing where her room was? Check.

How the hell were these two lovebirds not together yet?

Ned shook off the thought, heading up the stairs, skipping a step each time.

Michelle’s bedroom door was more of what he imagined it to be.

A sign had been nailed to the front and read ‘KEEP OUT’ in large, bold, bright red letters. Just below that, there was a message that had been painted on.

‘Screw you, Jane. I may not have a lock on my door yet, but I’ll definitely kill you if you enter. That goes for the rest of you. Mom and dad, you get a free pass because you created me and all that. Screw you too, Luke, Emma, Angela, and Ryan.’

Reading that out in Michelle’s voice sent a chill down Ned’s spine. He wouldn’t put murdering siblings past her.

Psycho Michelle Jones was becoming more and more believable by the second. And he was seriously starting to question his friends taste in women.

But, whatever. He hated it when his own sister went into his room. Maybe she was a little more… intense about things.

Ned hesitantly turned the handle to the door and turned on the light to her room.

Piles and piles of books were in every direction. Some of those piles actually went up to the ceiling. Pretty much every piece of furniture was black or extremely dark in colour. Her desk even had locks on all the drawers.

A safe that was sitting at the foot of her bed had a sticky note with the words ‘Peter’s suit’ written on it. There was no point in trying to open it, but he would definitely ask Peter about it later.

As Ned stepped forward, he felt himself step on what appeared to be a button, triggering a mechanism that slammed the door shut behind him.

It was still unlocked, but only upped the creep factor.

“Holy shit.” He cursed under his breath.

None of the piles of books had Michelle’s notebooks. They were all titles of books that Ned had never heard of.

Some he wouldn’t even bother to pronounce.

Being in someone else’s bedroom felt incredibly awkward, but Ned was in too deep at this point.

Moving on, he made his way over to the closet.

It seemed like a good place to hide things. Ned actually hid stuff from his parents in his own closet. And it worked every single time. They still had no idea about his spare laptop or stash of snacks.

Once Ned opened the closet door, he wasn’t met with clothes like a normal person would have had.

Instead, there were hundreds, if not thousands of notebooks, organized on specially marked shelves.

There were tons of them. Some even divided into subcategories.

Blackmail, Murder Scenarios, Torture of Eugene Thompson.

It was exactly what Ned was looking for.

He was ecstatic, until he became paralyzed in fear.

The largest section of the closet, which took up over one third of the area, was all about Peter.

Ned grabbed one book at random and opened it to the very first page.

It was an extremely detailed drawing of Peter sleeping that had been marked as ‘Peter sleeping, stage two’.

He flipped through page after page. Each one with a different drawing of his best friend.

“Oh my God.” He whispered.

In some, Peter was smiling. Others he was sleeping. There was even the occasional one of him with MJ herself.

Ned’s head shot up when he heard the window close behind him. Unmistakable footsteps started walking towards him slowly.

He felt another chill run down his spine.

Ned had a felt a sensation hit him like a speeding train. A sensation he hadn't felt since he was about five years old He felt as if he was going to wet himself.

“Book.” MJ commanded. “NOW.”

Ned quickly turned around to face MJ who was glaring down on him. She snatched the book out of his hands and put it back perfectly in its proper place.

Slamming the closet door shut, she advanced towards him as Ned started to back away.

“What the fuck are you doing in my house, Leeds?”

He decided to speak as fast as humanly possible.

“Peter said that he overheard that Eugene was threatened by someone he called a psycho so then we got to talking and we both thought that you may have threatened him so Peter wanted to come talk to you and see if it was true but you weren’t home and he took out the spare key so we could search your house and he sent me up here and I searched your room and I’m so sorry please don’t kill me!”

MJ chuckled slightly, sounding as if she was a true psychopath.

“I’m not going to kill you. What would I do with Peter in the basement? And, call me crazy, but I was actually starting to warm up to you. Eugene Thompson was ruining the life of my future husband. Threatening people is what a good wife would do.”

Wait, back up! Future husband?! Wife?!

“If you have any piece of mind, I’d forget everything you’ve seen in here. And you’ll never even breath a word of this to Peter. No loopholes. No speaking, no texting, sign language, written words, Morse code, or any type of code. EVER. I love Peter more than anyone. And I’ll tell him on my own time, in my own way.”

She was obsessed with him!

Ned immediately regretted saying that no one could match Peter’s crazy obsessive love for her.

He was dead wrong about everything.

“Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to go downstairs. You’re going to get Peter, and tell him that you didn’t find anything. You’re going to get out of here, and act as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Now, keep your mouth shut. Peter’s going through a lot of stress right now. I’m doing everything I can to help him out, and you need to start pitching in. We clear?”

Ned nodded quickly in response, opening the door and running down the stairs in a flash.

Peter walked up the stairs to face Ned in the hallway.

“Any luck, dude?” He asked.

“N-nope. I uh… I guess we were wrong about the whole MJ being a psychopath thing.”

They couldn’t have been more right.

“Yeah.” Peter laughed. “MJ being crazy? That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever had.”

It was a genius idea.

“We should probably get going before they come home.”

“Yes!” Ned exclaimed, practically dragging him outside.

MJ was discreetly watching them walk down the driveway from the window, eyes locked on Peter the entire time.

“I love you.” She whispered.


	34. She Loves Me

Super hearing was something that had many uses.

Some were useful, and others seemed pointless at the time.

Being able to hear every heartbeat in your church?

Could be useful someday.

Father Lantom’s sermon coming out as clear as a bell when you’re in the church basement?

Not a bad thing.

Hearing a conversation between your bullies from across the street while they whisper?

Infinitely useful.

Peter’s ability to hear things was obviously hard to control at first. And even when he managed to get it under control, there was the occasional time where he could faintly listen to something accidentally.

He would usually tune it out, and go back to hearing like a normal human.

But sometimes, Peter would hear something interesting.

And sometimes, he would maybe listen in.

His hearing was pretty damn strong. So, he could easily pick up the sound of a window opening all the way from the basement.

He could easily hear those unmistakable footsteps made by combat boots.

He could easily hear his best friend’s heartbeat increase to a rate that sounded as if he was having a heart attack, a second extremely calm heartbeat, and possibly, accidentally, through no fault of his own, hear a conversation as clear as a bell between his best friend and the girl he loved.

Peter went over the entire thing again and again. And every single time, there were two parts that stood out to him the most.

The first one being this.

‘I love Peter more than anyone.’

MJ said that! She actually said that!

And she was telling the truth! Her heartbeat couldn’t lie!

It took everything Peter had to not cheer at the top of his lungs.

MJ loved him back!

He didn’t even care about what she wrote in those books anymore. He didn’t want to know anymore.

All that mattered is that MJ said she loved him!

She threatened Eugene Thompson to get back at him for being an asshole, and she called him her ‘future husband’.

Was that a little weird?

Kind of. But Peter would be lying if he said that he hadn’t thought about it.

There was no point in lying to himself.

He thought about marrying her constantly.

Breaking into MJ’s house really was an invasion of her privacy. Peter would admit that. And he really felt guilty about it.

Which is why he came to the difficult conclusion to not tell her about his feelings.

The second sentence Peter focused was this.

‘And I’ll tell him on my own time, in my own way.’

He invaded her privacy once, and he wasn’t going to do it again.

MJ clearly didn’t want to tell Peter about loving him yet. And as much as it pained him, he was going to do the responsible thing and wait it out.

What made this suck even more is that Peter couldn’t talk to this about anyone!

Definitely not Aunt May.

And if he told Ned about being able to hear them two floors up, that would raise some very difficult questions. Peter was going to keep his powers a secret from him.

The one person who he wanted to talk about it with was MJ.

These problems seemed obsolete compared to knowing that the girl he loved actually loved him too.

Peter just layed awake in his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

“MJ loves me.” He whispered to himself.

It was even better to say it out loud.

Peter finally knew. And he was finally letting out his excitement about it.

When he was leaving MJ’s place with Ned, he struggled to keep it together. Peter would have obviously looked like an idiot in the eyes of his best friend and the neighbors.

He happily slid out of bed, jumping up onto the ceiling and sticking to it with ease.

Peter bounced from the ceiling, to the wall, to the other wall, all across his room, laughing as he did so.

“MJ loves me.” He said to himself repeatedly, keeping his voice quiet so Aunt May wouldn’t wake up.

Peter couldn’t exactly describe what he was feeling.

This wasn’t any ordinary form of love.

No one else in the world seemed as important as MJ.

All it took to make him smile was just thinking about her.

Everything was amazing now. Nothing could possibly get him down.

Even holding off until she was ready to tell him.

It would be well worth the wait. This feeling seemed like it would never go away, and he hoped it never did.

Despite the implications of MJ being ‘psycho’, she was perfect in his eyes.

Peter first realized he liked her after she hit Eugene Thompson over the head with a textbook. If she really was a psycho, that was why he loved her.

Once again, Peter wasn’t going to pretend he was normal.

Every single time he interacted with her, it felt like there were butterflies in his stomach.

She was constantly on his mind, no matter where he was or what he was doing.

MJ’s smile, her glare, her frown, the rare laugh she only let out when they were alone together, all of it made his day.

The way she whispered ‘I love you’ from the window when he was leaving her house.

Nothing could match the way her words echoed throughout his ears.

 

 

Ned sat up in his bed with the lights on, staring at the door.

He couldn’t get a wink of sleep. He was too afraid to close his eyes.

Michelle Jones was a fucking psychopath. And he couldn’t sleep knowing that she could walk through that door at any second to silence him.

If she broke into Eugene Thompson’s house, which was full of security guards and had a gate, his house would be a piece of cake.

She said she would let him live, but ever since he walked into her room, all the rumours of Michelle being a supervillain (all of which were started by her) had become all the more likely.

And speaking of, there were so many questions he had about her room.

Why was there a safe that was marked ‘Peter’s suit’ on it?

She was already working on his suit for their wedding! That was the only thing that made sense given how batshit crazy she was!

Ned was genuinely terrified for his best friend.

Was he crazy too?

Fuck yes! He also broke into someone’s house!

But there were also other things in Michelle's room that freaked him out.

Bottles of what looked like medicine were marked by date and dosage. And all were intended for Peter.

Some of the sections of the shelves were marked as ‘Peter Parker: Stage One’. Peter Parker: Stage Two’. Peter Parker: Stage Three’. And so on.

Ned wouldn’t dare speak a word of this. To anyone for that matter.

If he even told Peter, she might do something to him. Maybe it involved that medicine.

Mind control?

Was she feeding him trackers that would stay in his bloodstream?

And Michelle was a genius. The possibilities were literally endless.

Ned didn’t fall asleep at all through the night.

He was absolutely exhausted at school, and for some reason, Peter couldn’t stop smiling.


	35. Stage Five

MJ had to do some damage control. Specifically involving one Edward ‘Ned’ Leeds.

She loved Peter, but he was a complete and total moron.

It’s not that she was angry about him breaking into her home.

On the contrary, she found it quite… romantic, in a weird way.

The real mistake Peter had made was extremely large.

He sent Ned of all people to search her room instead of going there himself! There was Spider-Man stuff up there! And if it wasn’t for her paranoid nature and safe, he would have found the suit!

MJ was glad Peter was all the way down in the basement though.

She wasn’t ready for him to find out about the drawings, the Peter-book’s, or the many other skeletons in her closet.

He would obviously be told about them eventually, but today was not that day.

The point is, to keep Peter’s secret safe, and perhaps show a little bit of mercy to his terrified mind, MJ needed to have an extremely overdue conversation with Ned.

She decided to wait until school was over. Peter had already gone home at that point in order to prepare for stage five tonight. So, Ned was all alone.

MJ grabbed him by the arm, yanking him into the alley he was just passing by.

He immediately paled in fear when he realized it was her.

“Relax, Leeds.” MJ began. “I’m not going to kill you or anything.”

The fact that he needed some reassurance of that made her very proud. Years of spreading rumours about herself had grown into quite the reputation.

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

“You can call me MJ.”

Yes. She was letting someone else, other than Peter, use her nickname.

Truth be told, she considered Ned to be a friend at this point. He wasn’t as terrible or life-ruining as she anticipated.

And, having friends felt… nice.

“MJ?” He asked.

“That’s what I said. Now, pay attention. I just want to talk. What exactly did you see in my room? Outside of the closet region, of course.”

As per usual, she had a few excuses prepared to put his mind at ease.

“W-well, I uh…” Ned stuttered. “You have a lot of books. And locks on stuff. And there was this, uh… safe. And it had ‘Peter’s suit’ written on it. Believe me, I really don’t want to know what it is.”

“You’re going to.” She responded without skipping a beat. “I’ve been helping him make a superhero costume for Comic-Con. He’s a huge dork.”

Ned raised his eyebrows at her curiously.

“So… you’re not already getting to work on making him a suit of your wedding?”

MJ scoffed.

“Please. Getting all dressed up in uncomfortable clothing? I don’t even want to wear a dress when I get married. Do you think people make combat boots in white?”

Wearing white was a tradition she would stick with. But dresses would always suck.

“I uh… I have no idea. But what about all those needles you were giving to Peter?!”

She wouldn’t have to lie about his part.

“Peter’s been sick. I was taking care of him and giving him his medicine. Just ask Aunt May. I guarantee there was no poisoning or anything like that. He’s all better now, just so you know. And I don’t want you to think I’m crazy or anything. So, as a special surprise, I broke into Eugene Thompson’s house, shaved his head, and put a skunk in his room.”

For good reason, MJ left out the more violent details.

Ned’s fear quickly turned into a smile, letting out a small laugh.

“Is that why he’s been wearing that hat everywhere?”

MJ smirked.

“Completely bald up top.”

“That’s awesome!”

“I know. I only hurt people who deserve it. You’re not on my list.”

He seemed to be a bit taken aback by her words.

“You have a list?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll see you tomorrow. Ned.”

 

 

Peter jumped up onto the roof of the garage, then up to the main roof on MJ’s house.

Crawling up the angle towards her window, he tapped on the glass, seeing that she was sitting on her bed.

She quickly got up, opening the window as he came crawling through.

“Hey, MJ!” Peter greeted happily.

MJ smirked at him, closing the curtains.

“What’s gotten into you? You’ve done nothing but smile for the past few days.”

Peter shrugged, dropping his backpack on the floor.

“Things are just going really great right now. Does there have to be a reason?”

There was one incredible reason. And they just happened to be standing in the same room as him.

“I guess.” MJ said skeptically. “But for someone who’s about to go through a night of puking your guts out for the fourth time this year, it’s pretty weird.”

“I’m a weird person.” He admitted.

“Most obvious statement ever.” She teased, taking out one of the needles and filling it up with his medicine. “Are you ready?”

Peter let out a deep breath and turned around with his eyes closed, adjusting his head to give her a proper angle for injection.

“Let’s get this over with.”

“Sorry about this.”

She said the exact same thing ever time. And somehow, it always made him feel a little bit better.

Peter clenched his fists and gritted his teeth together to stop himself from crying out in pain.

The blood coursing through his veins felt as if they were on fire. Peter’s entire body was in more pain than he had every felt.

After a few short seconds, the pain ceased as it did so many times before.

“I’m never going to get used to that.” Peter groaned.

“Sorry.” MJ whispered. “But on the bright side, you only have to do this one more time.”

These past four months since he got bitten had been absolute hell.

What with being sick constantly and Uncle Ben passing away, things hadn’t exactly been going well for him.

Hopefully, things would look up. And now, they were starting to.

“Thanks. When do you think -” He trailed off.

Peter stopped talking when he felt something sticky on his knee.

He removed his hand away to see what looked like some kind of white rope attaching to his knee, and originating from his left wrist.

It may have even looked like… a spider web.

On any other day, he would have freaked out. But this was definitely not the weirdest thing that had happened to him lately.

“MJ?” Peter asked, keeping his eyes glued to the web. “What is this?”

She grabbed the web, struggling to pull it away.

“You can shoot webs from your wrists. You can use it to swing from buildings and tie up criminals.”

The attempts at getting rid of his webbing amounted to nothing. The tensile strength must have been incredible.

“Maybe if you tried to shoot another one, it would get out.”

“… and how am I supposed to do that?”

“The files weren’t that specific. Just… try something.”

Okay. That’s not that difficult.

Peter opened his hand up, pushing his palm out into the air.

Nothing.

He tried shaking, thumbs up, pointing, and flipping them off. The last one was MJ’s suggestion.

Before he was about to give up, he tried one last time.

Peter held his hand out with his palm facing the ceiling with his middle finger and ring finger folded in.

With a flick of his wrist, a second web was shot out towards MJ’s wall, while freeing him from the first one.

“Holy shit.” Peter cursed, attempting the action with his other hand.

He shot another web over towards his backpack, yanking it towards him. The web detached from his wrist this time, but remained stuck to his bag.

“Okay, tiger.” MJ stated, putting a stop to his fun. “As cool as this would be, I don’t need you to web up my room. We’ll practice this tomorrow after school. Got it?”

Peter nodded in response.

It was probably the perfect time, because a couple of seconds later, the headaches kicked in, and his vision began to darken.

One more month to go.


	36. Matchmaker

Ned knew he shouldn’t tell Peter that MJ liked him back.

She made it perfectly clear that she wanted him to hear it from her.

And despite their newfound friendship, a small part of him was still terrified of her.

But then, Ned had a brilliant idea.

If those two finally got together, then maybe, just maybe, they would start to act like normal human beings.

No more breaking and entering, threats, murder scenarios, or being complete lunatics.

Eighty-seven percent of the crazy things Peter and MJ did was because they wanted to be with each other.

The remaining thirteen percent was just themselves.

Still though. It made sense on paper.

To add to the mess, everyone at school was probably going to be affected by their craziness at some point.

And Ned believed that it was for the good of the entire school.

Getting together not only would have gotten rid of their obsessive behavior about each other, but could maybe turn MJ into a sane person.

Almost getting murdered by MJ was a small price to pay for his fellow students to remain free from being traumatized.

Except for Eugene Thompson.

MJ’s greatest accomplishment was scaring the shit out of him.

After giving it some thought, and looking past the weird obsessiveness, Ned realized that Peter and MJ would actually be good together.

She actually cared enough about him to help him out when he was sick.

And they had plenty in common, such as reading constantly, secret love of sci-fi, nature, and animals, to name a few.

After school one day, when they were in the middle of playing Lego Star Wars III, Ned decided to just get it over with.

“MJ’s in love with you.” He blurted out.

Expecting Peter freak out in happiness or something, he only kept his eyes glued to the screen, focusing on nothing else but the game.

“Yeah, I know.”

He quickly paused the game, turning to his best friend with his mouth hanging open.

“You know?!”

Peter’s eyes widened as if he just realized what he said.

“Know what? I- I don’t know anything. What were we even talking about?”

Ned lightly hit him over the head.

“Bullshit! You know?!”

Peter sighed, shaking his head.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

“How?!” Ned cried. “Did she tell you?!”

“Um… not exactly. I, uh… may have accidentally overheard her?”

Was he asking him or telling him?

More importantly, if he knew, why weren’t they dating yet?!

Peter really was a moron. If he overheard Betty saying she loved him, he wouldn’t waste anytime.

Like every normal person in the world would act!

“May have overheard her?!”

“I definitely overheard her. But she’s not ready to tell me about it yet, so I’m going to wait it out.”

Ned decided to hit him again. With something much harder this time,

He picked up a book from his backpack, and threw it at Peter when he wasn’t looking.

Much to his surprise, Peter caught it as if he saw it coming from a mile away.

Ned ignored this phenomenon, and resumed yelling.

“You’re an idiot! If by some miracle a girl loves you back, you owe it to every other guy to go for it! Do you have any idea how rare this is?!”

“I know. And I’m going to go for it… eventually. I just want to be responsible. If she’s not ready yet, I’ll respect that. If she loves me, I have nothing to worry about.”

Stupid Peter and his stupid responsibility.

Couldn’t he act normal for once and be selfish?!

Waiting for him to get with MJ was just about the most painful thing Ned had ever seen.

Even before he completely found out about their mutual feelings, it was still pretty obvious.

They weren’t exactly the most subtle people on the planet.

“I hate you sometimes.” Ned groaned. “I mean, not really. But you can be annoying as hell! And back up for just a second. When exactly did you overhear her? She told me, but you were all the way down in the basement. And I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have spoken about it to a lot of other people.”

Given the message that was written on her door, Ned got the sense that her relationships with her siblings weren’t that trusting.

And that was for obvious reasons. He wouldn’t dare tell his own sister about his crush on Betty, but still.

That didn’t leave many candidates.

Outside of himself and Peter, MJ didn’t talk to anyone at school other than disagreeing with teachers or threatening fellow students.

It didn’t make any sense that he overheard her.

“I, uh… just have really good hearing. I can’t really explain it, but I heard her.”

“When was this?” Ned asked again.

“Only a few weeks ago. It doesn’t matter how I know, dude.”

Peter had to be lying for a reason.

It was a pretty simple question.

How and when did he find out MJ loved him back?

Ned’s mind had been focusing on being afraid of MJ so much that he had barely given any thought to Peter’s strange behavior.

He barely even addressed what he was sick with.

They were best friends. And he had MJ helping him out and didn’t tell him about it.

Was Ned doubting that Peter was sick?

Absolutely not.

But it was still strange. He didn’t appear to be sick at all. So, what could it have been?

How was he able to overhear a conversation between Eugene Thompson and the other bullies when they made an effort to stay as far away from them as possible?

Why did he run out of the principal’s office even when he knew he would be suspended?

And back to the book thing.

He couldn’t have possibly caught that!

Ned shouldn’t have thrown it at him, but Peter deserved it for being the literal definition of a moron.

Peter had no way of knowing it was coming.

And his reflexes appeared to move in the blink of an eye.

Ned didn’t know that he had caught the book until he did.

Peter’s behavior had definitely been out of character for the past few months.

Ned didn’t care about it at first, but once he noticed it, he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

He wasn’t going to pry though.

If Peter thought he needed to know, he would have told him.

“Fine.” Ned sighed. “But can you at least promise me that you two can get together soon? I just want what’s best for you.”

‘And what’s best for myself, the teachers, and everyone else in the school.’ He thought to himself.

“Only when she’s ready. I’m not changing my mind on this, dude.”

Ned was extremely frustrated with Peter.

His next thought was to get MJ to hurry the fuck up and magically be ready, but that was crazy.

He could already imagine her murdering him without hesitation.

“Forget what I said. I definitely hate you.”

Playing matchmaker was hard work. And with Peter and MJ, it was near impossible.


	37. Interrupted

“What do you mean you’re not coming?” Flash asked quietly, barely keeping up with his father, Norman Osborn.

Norman looked down at his watch, continuing to walk down the busy hallway without looking back.

“I have a meeting with a rather important client of mine. The dinner will have to wait.”

“But it’s my birthday!” He cried. “And you promised you’d make it this year!”

His father stopped in his tracks, reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out his wallet.

In a huff, Norman handed Flash a few thousand dollars without giving it a second thought.

“I’m sorry, son. I hope this makes up for it.”

Not saying another word, Flash was left in the middle of the Oscorp hallways, watching his father walk off quickly towards the lab.

He looked down at the wad of bills in his hand, and proceeded to throw them violently off to the side, completely forgotten.

Inside the lab, Norman firmly shook hands with an army general, turning towards a sealed room.

“It’s good to see you again, General Ross.”

“Likewise, Mr. Osborn. What have you been able to figure out about the substance?”

The two were staring at a metal container, filled with a gooey black liquid. It appeared to be moving all by itself as if it was alive.

“So far? Nothing. I’ve authorized my researchers to hold off until we’ve found a way to properly protect them. We still have no idea what kind of dangers it could present, given how it came to be in your hands.”

General Ross nodded in response.

“Clever. What about your other projects?”

“The glider is almost ready for field-testing, as well as the suit. Unfortunately, Dr. Connors is experiencing some difficulty with the formula. But I assure you, I have my full faith in his abilities.”

“Shame. I’ll see what I can do about increasing your funding. Now, let’s take a look at Kravinoff and Smerdyakov’s progress.”

 

 

MJ was doing a full sweep of her room, removing any and all things that could be tied back to Spider-Man.

This was something she would have to do sooner rather than later.

It would have been a very difficult conversation with her family members if they found Peter’s suit, the designs, or any files given by Tony Stark himself.

MJ couldn’t destroy them though.

There were far too many months of work put into studying Peter’s powers that would have just gone to waste.

Only an idiot wouldn’t have kept them.

And Michelle Jones was no idiot.

Sadly however, Peter Parker was. But he was the only person she could give the research to.

He was incredibly smart. MJ would give him that. Probably the brightest person at the school behind herself.

And yet, Peter lacked common sense.

She could straighten him out a little bit.

If he was left on his own to even hide his own suit in his home, Aunt May would find out in an instant.

So, on Saturday morning, MJ took Peter’s completed suit out of the safe, and gathered together the research spanning from stage one to stage five, to take to Peter’s place.

The notes on stage six would be kept buried in her closet among the other notebooks for the time being, just until the final night.

Carrying her backpack proved to be quite difficult.

MJ really should have thought this through. The whole thing was so heavy she was convinced it would drag her down through the cement.

But after an excruciating walk over, she finally made it up to Peter’s room.

MJ burst into his room without knocking, dropping the backpack down by his bed where he was fast asleep.

Normally, she would have loved to just watch him like that, but she wasn’t in that great a mood.

Without hesitation, MJ swiftly slapped him in the face, causing him to wake up immediately.

“What was that for?” Peter yawned, grabbing onto his cheek.

“I had to wake you up.” She shrugged.

“And you couldn’t have done it another way?”

“Nope. It worked, so I have no regrets. Now, get up.”

He started to blush slightly, avoiding her gaze.

“I, uh… don’t exactly have pants on. A-and I can’t really… get up yet.”

Right. Guys waking up in the morning have the thing.

“Okay. Then stay there and pay attention.”

MJ took out his finished suit, holding it up to him.

“You’re going to want to hide this in a place where Aunt May wouldn’t find it. How many safes do you have?” 

Peter looked at her curiously.

“N-none.”

What kind of person didn’t have a safe?!

“Any locks on your desk drawers?”

“No.”

“Secret compartments anywhere?”

“No.”

“Do you at least rent a storage unit or locker in a discreet location in the city?”

“No.”

MJ immediately facepalmed.

These were normal precautions that every single human being needed. And he didn’t even have one of them!

She had a few dozen of each.

Except for the storage unit and locker.

MJ only had two of those each.

“I swear, you’re hopeless. Where were you even going to hide it?”

Peter gestured over to the side.

“My closet.”

A closet which happened to have no lock on it.

“That won’t work.”

MJ pulled out his desk chair, standing on top of it and reaching towards the ceiling vent.

“You’re going to stick it up here with a web, and climb up whenever you need it.”

With a flick of his wrist, Peter webbed the suit inside the vent, which was then slammed shut my MJ.

“And I want you to keep all my research.” She continued, dumping the contents of her backpack onto the floor.

There were dozens of notebooks and files, all unmarked.

MJ made sure to keep them free of any obsessive Peter contents.

“Holy shit.” He cursed. “You did all that in almost five months?!”

“Just the notebooks. The files were all from Stark, but still. There was a lot he didn’t know yet. I actually had to do some…” She trailed off.

Looking back up, her eyes met Peter’s, which had been staring at her.

“Is something wrong?”

He shook his head in response.

“Kind of a weird question, but… what if you knew someone… liked you? I mean, hypothetically speaking. What would you do?”

MJ had a sudden realization.

They had spent so much time trying to control his powers that they barely even focused on his limits.

Especially not his hearing.

Did he know?

Peter was all the way down in the basement when she was talking to Ned.

But there was a small chance that he could have heard.

MJ assumed that he could turn it on and off whenever he wanted. But she wasn’t sure at this point.

Not to mention that there were specific times when she talked about it when he was asleep.

At least she thought he was asleep!

No one would ask this hypothetically!

He knew! He had to know!

MJ took a moment to relax.

She was just getting ahead of herself.

There wasn’t complete confirmation. It could have been hypothetical.

She had to wait until she was sure.

“Depends. D-do the two both like each other? Hypothetically speaking, of course.”

It was definitely not hypothetical.

“Yeah. Like, a lot.”

He knew! He fucking knew!

God, she was so stupid.

Super hearing! And you threatened Ned when he was in an earshot!

But this wasn’t a bad thing.

Peter was still around, and he hadn’t freaked out.

“So… they should –”

“Peter!” May called out from the main floor. “Breakfast is ready!”

And once again, the moment was over.

Couldn’t they just catch a break?

Peter sighed, looking away from MJ for the first time.

“Coming!” He called back.

She grabbed a pair of sweatpants off the back of his chair tossing them towards him.

“I’ll uh… hide this stuff, and we’ll, uh… talk later?”

Peter nodded quickly.

“Cool.”


	38. Stage Six

MJ let out a deep breath, finally looking up from her feet.

“So…” She began awkwardly, hair covering one of her eyes. “I like you, loser. Scratch that. I actually… love you. But you already knew that, didn’t you? Whatever. Point is, I’m like, ninety-nine percent sure that you love me too. Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot more I want out of life than just a relationship. Successful career, being a great daughter, an annoying sibling, and rumoured vampire, but still. You’re the first person who I’ve wanted to actually spend time with, and who likes me for me. Even with my borderline psychotic criminal behavior. And that’s how I feel. Honestly, that was the most painful minute of my life, so just say something so I can stop talking.”

“You know…” Jane smirked, leaning against the doorway. “You really shouldn’t practice your love confessions in the bathroom mirror.”

MJ clenched her fists and shut her eyes, wanting nothing more than to throw said mirror at her eldest sister.

Didn’t people respect privacy these days?!

She was terrible at expressing her feelings.

Which is the exact reason she needed to practice what she was going to say to Peter.

MJ had spent a long time coming up with what to say, and even longer practicing.

And thankfully, it was becoming easier every single time.

Except when Jane, or any other siblings of hers interrupted.

The plan was pretty simple.

Tonight, was the last stage of Peter’s transformation.

Stage six.

She would wait until the opportune moment, and just go into her speech.

If all went well, Peter would reciprocate.

The countdown to his arrival was eight hours and thirty-seven minutes.

Nine O’clock on the dot.

“I’m literally going to kill you.” MJ growled, eyes still closed, refusing to look at Jane.

“If you were going to, you would have done it already. And isn’t the guy supposed to be the one to ask out the girl and not the other way around?”

“I can do whatever I want.”

MJ stormed out of the bathroom, purposefully bumping her sister as she walked quickly back towards her room.

Slamming the door behind her and jumping on her bed, MJ found anything but peace, because a few seconds later, Jane opened the door and waltzed inside.

“I know you don’t like talking, but –”

MJ took her pillow and buried her face in it, using it to muffle a scream.

It still came out incredibly loud.

The scream lasted several seconds, until she removed it, breathing heavily.

“Fuck… you.” She panted.

Jane had taken her place sitting in MJ’s desk chair, putting her feet up on the nightstand.

“Someone’s in a mood. I just want to help.”

Going into HER room, sitting in HER chair, and putting disgusting feet onto HER nightstand!

What kind of shit help was this?!

“Get out of my room.” She tried again, glaring at Jane.

“I’m serious. You just need to –”

MJ, in retaliation, threw the pillow at Jane’s head.

It obviously didn’t do much damage, but hit her directly in the face.

“Fuck you! You’re going to ruin everything if you’re in here!”

It was about damn time MJ got a lock on her door. Anyone could have come inside.

Her room was probably her favourite place to be, just behind the library.

Both were quiet, filled with books, and away from her family.

For the most part.

The only person she enjoyed being in those places with was Peter.

He wasn’t annoying like every other person.

Jane could never shut up.

Ryan and Angela were inseparable, and didn’t pay much attention to her.

Emma was mind-numbingly stupid. Not to mention she jumped from boyfriend to boyfriend every other week.

Luke was actually pretty smart, but never put effort into school.

Not one of them understood MJ. And all of them had what would be considered a ‘normal personality’.

The last thing she needed was them around.

“Michelle.” Jane sighed.

“Shut up! Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to get the fuck out of my room, and you’re going to stay out! That goes for everyone else!”

MJ got up from her bed and grabbed her sister by the arm, literally dragging her towards the hallway.

Once Jane was on the other side, MJ slammed the door shut again, leaning against it to keep it closed.

As the hours passed, she did nothing but stare at the window, waiting nervously for Peter’s arrival.

Going over the speech again and again in her head, MJ found that it didn’t help at all. In fact, the anticipation made her heart race.

Even her hands started trembling.

She had been waiting months for this.

Ever since Peter had said “excuse me, miss” to her when she was sitting on the steps of the school, MJ loved him.

For some reason, she wanted to be around him.

And for an even weirder reason, he didn’t think of her as just a scary person.

MJ loved that people saw that in her, but Peter saw that, and so much more.

However, nine o’clock came and went, and he was nowhere to be found.

Peter never missed their meetings. Ever. And by now, his final stage would have probably begun.

MJ pulled out his medicine from under the bed, looking at her reflection in the glass container.

“Where the hell are you?” She whispered.

Her head jolted up when there was the sound of something banging against the window.

A very weak looking Peter pulled off his mask, barely able to stand.

MJ shot out of bed, opening the window as he collapsed on to the floor.

“Sorry I’m late.” He coughed.

“Are you okay?!” She asked, holding onto him.

“Yeah. No big deal. But I may have gigantically messed up in a tiny way.”

Peter rolled up his shirt slightly, revealing a fresh bullet wound in his side.

“Oh my God. What happened?! I thought you could dodge bullets!”

Now was definitely not the time for her speech.

“Well, it’s kind of hard when there’s a lot of them. And they had automatic weapons. I went one way to avoid getting hit, but it just happened to in the way of another. Still though. It’s a lot better than getting shot in the face.”

“You know what else is a lot better?! Not getting shot!”

“I know. But –”

MJ placed her hand over his mouth, putting a stop to his words.

“Just stay here. I need to remove the bullet, and stitch you up.”

Reading all those books on first aid, bullets, and stitching were really about to come in handy.

Peter nodded slowly in response.

“Good.”

MJ got up off of the floor, heading out into the hallway to get the first aid kit. Everything else she would need to stitch him up was under her bed.

As she was heading into the bathroom, she stopped in her tracks directly outside of her door, coming face to face with her mother, Robin.

“Mom!” MJ exclaimed. “What are you… what are you doing here?”

“I was coming to check on you. Did you at least have something to eat?”

Inside her room, Peter dragged himself underneath her bed to hide from Robin.

“Uh… y-yeah. Sorry, but I really have to… use the bathroom. I’m kinda feeling a little sick right now, and it’s not great. Both ends, really. I mean, one second I have to puke, and the other I have to –”

Her mom quickly stepped out of the way heading back downstairs.

“Okay, sweetie. Too much information. Hope you feel better!”

MJ rushed to the bathroom when Robin was out of sight, grabbing the first aid kit and heading back to Peter.

He had already taken out the other medical supplies from underneath the bed, and appeared to have injected himself with his medicine.

Thankfully, Peter had passed out whole laying on the floor.

That made her job a lot easier.

This night was definitely not going the way she would have wanted.

MJ was going to tell Peter that she loved him. Instead, he was recently shot, leaving her to patch him up.

Granted, doing this had been on her bucket list since she was about five. But tonight, MJ didn't want any of that.

All she wanted was to kiss Peter Parker.


	39. Chapter 39

Thankfully, Peter’s advanced healing had been able to stop him from bleeding, and the bullet wasn’t inside him.

It went in clean through one end and out the other, without hitting any internal organs.

If MJ remembered correctly, to treat a bullet wound, she had to stop the bleeding, clean the wound, remove the bullet, then stitch him up.

Steps one and three were already done for her.

With Peter passed out on the floor, MJ rolled up a portion of his sweatshirt for a second time, exposing the fresh injury.

Normally, she enjoyed disgusting things such as this. But not when it was Peter who was hurt.

Taking the bowl of water, MJ soaked the cloth and began to wash away the dried blood.

Maybe it was a lot better this way.

She could only imagine what kind of pain he would have felt if he was conscious. Not to mention how much the effects of stage six would add to that pain.

Peter was in for a night of rest, and no puking.

He may have been a superhero, but this was should have been a wakeup call for him.

Spider-Man was far from invincible. And Peter Parker was a fucking idiot.

What kind of almost-fourteen-year-old got themselves shot?!

Apparently, it was the kind MJ was attracted to.

Squeezing out the cloth, turning the liquid in the bowl red, Peter’s wound was fully cleaned. The only problems that remained were the two holes in his side.

No big deal, right?

They weren’t very big though. Probably even smaller than when he first got to her room.

His healing factor was doing all that work in just a few minutes.

At this rate, they would be completely healed by morning. With or without stitches.

Instead of stitching him up, MJ took out some bandages and wrapped them tightly around his waist, effectively covering up his wounds, while also keeping pressure on them.

“I wish you were awake right now.” She sighed. “I mean, I know you’re going to be late a lot now, and this isn’t going to be the last time this happens, but… I still wanna be with you. Just try not to die, okay?”

MJ stared at Peter, watching him sleep calmly.

“I’ll take your complete silence as a yes.”

Leaving the medical supplies on the ground, she grabbed him under the arms, dragging him over towards her bed.

Placing Peter under the blanket, MJ crawled in next to him, wrapping her arms around the small boy’s waist and burying her face in his shoulder.

The arms were to put some extra pressure on his wound. Not because she wanted to cuddle him.

 

 

MJ woke up feeling anything but comfortable.

Instead of resting her head on his shoulder, it was pressed up against an incredibly hard surface.

Opening her eyes, inches away from Peter’s face, MJ looked down to see where her head layed.

The hard surface was his shoulder!

Stage six was super strength, a growth spurt, and muscles. After the whole getting shot thing, MJ had completely forgotten about the changes he was going through.

“Peter!” She whispered in his ear. “Peter!”

MJ rolled out of bed, pulling the blanket away.

His sweatshirt appeared to have shrunken, arms far longer than the sleeves. And his legs were much longer than his pants.

Six-inch growth spurt?

Check.

Peter’s eyes opened slowly as he turned to face MJ.

“Morning.” He yawned, leaning up on the bed.

Underneath his back, she could see that the bandages she had placed around his waist were ripped off, probably due to the rapid growth.

A portion of his side was visible, showing no indication that he was shot under twelve hours ago.

After a few seconds, Peter stood up, stumbling at first.

“Why does everything look smaller?” He asked.

“Because you’re… bigger.”

Peter locked eyes with MJ. They were now at the exact same height.

An incredibly smug grin made its way to his face.

“I –”

“Don’t start!” She snapped.

Still though. The height didn’t ruin him like she thought it would.

He actually looked kind of… good.

Not that he didn’t always look good, but just in a different way.

“Sorry.” Peter looked down at his clothes, realizing how short they were. “Well, there goes over half my wardrobe.”

“Don’t worry about it. I have some clothes you can borrow.”

MJ made her way over to her closet, making sure he didn’t see her books, and stated rummaging through in search of clothes.

“Girls clothes?” He asked hesitantly, shimmying out of his pants.

“I wear a lot of Luke’s old clothes. Boys clothes are way more comfortable.”

She pulled out a pair of sweatpants, and an old sweatshirt, both of which would fit him perfectly.

MJ’s breath hitched the second she turned back around.

Peter was standing in her bedroom, wearing nothing but his boxers.

Her eyes first locked onto his chest, travelling lower and lower.

He wasn’t buff like Thor or Captain America. He was more toned, but the muscles were still large.

The abs were definitely something she wouldn’t complain about.

MJ had to admit something to herself.

Muscles did anything but ruin his appearance.

An extreme blush spread to her face as she continued to stare at his body.

Moving closer to bring over the clothes, MJ’s heart began racing.

She was a fourteen-year-old girl, and it was near impossible to fight was she was about to do.

Setting the clothes down on the bed, MJ raised her hand up slightly.

“S-sorry. Could I just, uh…”

She nervously reached out, placing her hand where the bullet holes used to be.

Peter didn’t object, but he began to blush as much as she did.

“Y-you… I mean… I’m glad you’re better.”

“T-thank you.” He whispered. “For helping me.”

MJ was sure that her heart was about to jump out of her chest.

She slid her hand away from his side over to his stomach.

All of the abs felt like they were made out of rock.

Finally looking him in the eyes, hair covering part of her face, MJ breath against him slowly.

“I –” Peter began.

“Wait.” She interrupted. “I actually have something I’ve been wanting to say for a while. Can you just… shut up for like a minute? Please?”

He nodded quickly in response.

“Good. So… I like you, loser. Scratch that. I actually… love you. But you already knew tha –”

Peter leaned in quickly, pecking MJ’s lips, then retreated back nervously.

MJ was left in awe.

Did Peter Parker just kiss her?! Did Peter ‘THE LOVE OF HER LIFE’ Parker just kiss her?!

She immediately started breathing heavily, smiling as she did so.

“I- I love you too.”

MJ ran at him with all her might, tackling Peter to the ground, letting out an uncontrollable laugh of happiness.

Grabbing onto his face, she pressed her forehead against his own while continuing to laugh like a maniac.

“YOU LOVE ME!” MJ exclaimed at the top of her lungs, kissing Peter all over. “YOU LOVE ME!”

“I love you.”

They were so lost in the moment, that neither one of the heard the door open. Not even Peter with his super hearing.

“Hey, Michelle.” Jane began with her eyes glued to her phone. “Dad says breakfast is ready. What was all the yelling about?”

The two broke apart rapidly.

Peter practically jumped all the way across to the other side of the room, grabbing the change of clothes as he did so.

Unfortunately, his enhanced speed and agility couldn’t get them out of this mess.

Jane looked up from her phone to see a very disheveled MJ sitting on the floor, and a half naked Peter pulling on a pair of sweatpants.

“Oh, you gotta be shitting me.” MJ cursed under her breath.


	40. Chapter 40

Getting caught by your sister while kissing a boy for the first time was anything but fun.

Especially when there was a bowl that had said boy’s blood in it along with bandages and a red mask sticking out slightly from underneath the bed.

So naturally, MJ did the only thing that a rational person would do in this moment.

Taking one of her books, she shot up off of the floor, hitting Jane over the head and knocking her out cold.

Peter’s eyes widened, staring at her sister.

“What did you just do?!” He whisper yelled.

MJ turned back to him with an unimpressed look on her face.

“I handled things!” She responded, grabbing Jane under the arms and dragging her towards the bed. “Can you get the door?”

Peter sighed, pulling his sweatpants up and putting on the old hoodie as he moved to grab the handle.

He tried to close it, but instead, the door was cleanly pulled off from the hinges.

The two of them looked down as he held the entire thing with one hand effortlessly.

“So, how strong am I supposed to be?” Peter asked carefully.

MJ dropped Jane on the bed in a huff.

“Somewhere between super-duper and holy shit.”

“Cool.” He put the door back in its place, still detached from the hinges. “Welp, I think I’ve overstayed my welcome.”

She picked up another one of her books, throwing it at his head when his back was turned.

Obviously, he caught it without looking back.

“You’re not going to stay?”

Peter stopped in his tracks, coming towards her again.

“I want to. Really. I really, REALLY, want to stay with you.”

“Because you love me!” MJ said excitedly, forgetting about her unconscious sister.

“Yeah.” He smiled back at her. “C-can I… kiss you?”

She didn’t even have to respond.

Instantaneously, MJ launched forward, wrapping her arms around him and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

Neither one of them could tell if they were doing it properly, but it sent butterflies in her stomach every time they touched.

MJ couldn’t believe that she was actually kissing Peter. She never felt as comfortable with someone as she did with him.

All her guards were let down when they were alone together.

And after months of dreaming, it was finally happening.

She was unable to control a small squeal that escaped from her lips as they separated.

Peter shot a web towards his mask, pulling it towards him before heading out the window.

MJ’s eyes travelled down to Peter’s ass, biting her lip.

It looked different, but it was still pretty damn perfect.

“Michelle! Jane!” Their dad, Jim, called out from the main floor. “Breakfast!”

She let out a frustrated groan.

“In a minute!”

MJ jumped over to her bed, and slapped Jane in the face, effectively waking her up.

Grabbing onto her neck, she narrowed her eyes.

“If you EVER speak a word of what you thought you saw, I will LITERALLY kill you.”

Jane sat up, and shrugged off MJ’s threat.

“You’re adorable.” She smirked.

Ah, yes. The only person who was immune to her threats was the same person who lived to make her completely miserable.

MJ’s usual scowl was replaced with a panicked expression.

“Please, don’t! I swear! I’ll do anything as long as you keep your mouth shut!”

Jane started walking towards the door, smiling as she did so.

“I’ll think about it.”

The door of course, was pulled away completely.

“I’m not even going to ask.”

The two quickly headed downstairs, with MJ praying the entire time for her sister to die.

Or at least fall into a coma.

If she was really a vampire like she wanted, Jane’s blood would have been sucked up by now.

Sadly, none of that was true.

And God probably had better things to worry about than this whole mess.

Sitting down in their usual places, MJ and Jane joined the rest of their family who were all waiting for them.

“Michelle’s got a boyfriend.” Jane blurted out.

She immediately sunk down in her seat, blushing furiously.

“Old news.” Luke responded with his mouth full. “You said the exact same thing like, eight months ago.”

“And I’m saying it again because I just caught them kissing.”

MJ’s grip became so tight that her glass broke in her hand, spilling water all over.

“I- I think I’m gonna go clean this up.” She said, standing up.

“Sit down.” Jim said in a calm voice, even though she expected him to be furious. 

MJ obeyed her father’s words, looking down at her plate while everyone else was staring at her.

‘Dear Lord. Please, please, please, please, please kill Jane. Or kill me. Or rewind time so I can avoid this. Amen’.

“Now then.” Robin began. “Jane, you explain what you mean, and after, Michelle, you can tell your side of the story.”

Stupid lawyer mom. Why couldn’t they resolve this with violence?

Jane sat up as straight as an arrow, smiling proudly.

“So, I went upstairs to get Michelle like you asked. And when I get to her room, she happened to be on the floor, and he was on the other side.”

“See!” MJ exclaimed. “You never saw us kissing!”

Robin held up her hand, signaling for her to stop.

“No comments from the defendant, please. What evidence do you have to support the alleged kissing?”

She got the feeling that her mother was thoroughly enjoying this.

He parents must have been thrilled to know that she had normal human emotions to a certain degree.

“She was on the floor, her hair was a mess, breathing heavily, and had swollen lips. Peter on the other hand, was half naked.”

They probably weren’t too thrilled about that part.

“It wasn’t anything like that! He was just changing into different clothes!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jane groaned. “Did he get taller? Because I could swear, he was this tiny little white boy. And after all these months, you never once mentioned he was jacked. Honestly, what kind of a fourteen-year-old has a body like that? It’s kind of freaky.”

“SHUT UP!” MJ shouted at the top of her lungs. “I’ll admit that I kissed him! Happy?! But we’re WAY too young to be doing… it! Just stay out of it, because I’ve been waiting a long time for this, and I don’t need any of you ruining it!”

She stood up from her chair, storming out of the dining room towards the front door.

MJ loved her parents, but her siblings sucked.

Jane in particular.

She never had problems like this when she was around Peter.

He understood her. And no matter what he did, he couldn’t annoy her.

In MJ’s eyes, he was perfect.

What she needed now wasn’t her family.

She didn’t just need Peter. She wanted him.

And now that she had him, she was never going to let go.


	41. Chapter 41

As Peter heard sirens coming towards him, he webbed the last remaining criminal to the wall, then took off swinging into the air.

In the past two weeks of his superhero career, the public’s opinion could only be described as mixed.

Some people like him, thankfully.

Others were more… vocal.

‘He’s some kind of freak.’

‘Spider-Man’s the worst thing to happen to the city.’

‘Why haven’t we arrested him yet?’

Peter tried not to let it get to him, but it definitely wasn’t a good feeling to have a couple million people hate him after such little time.

Dropping down on the roof of the school, he made his way over to his spare backpack and pulled out a change of clothes.

In order to hide his new layer of muscle, Peter had been borrowing some of Uncle Ben’s old clothes.

Considering how massive they were on him, he still looked incredibly thin and sickly.

The real trick however, was getting out of his suit.

The skin-tight red and blue spandex was surprisingly comfortable, but had some kinks to work out.

Peter pulled off his mask, dropping it onto the floor and grabbing under the neckline.

The process was beginning to get easier, but not that much easier.

Shimmying his shoulders out after a large amount of struggling, the hard part was finally over.

From there, Peter pulled his arms and legs out of the suit, and placed it in the bottom of his backpack.

Changed into a hoodie and a pair of sweatpants that barely fit him, Peter slung his bag over his shoulder, entering the school.

Running through the empty halls towards his classroom, he had to hold up his pants to keep them from falling down.

It wasn’t a problem if he walked normally, but not when he was running.

Peter stopped on a dime, composing himself before entering the class.

The moment the door opened, every student, along with Ms. Ross, turned towards him, staring.

“Mr. Parker.” She began in her usual disappointed tone. “You’re late. Again.”

Spider-Man hadn’t exactly affected his punctuality on a positive level.

“Sorry, miss.” He apologized sheepishly, heading to his desk at the back. “It won’t happen again.”

Unfortunately, Ms. Ross wasn’t convinced this time, and just had to stay on the subject.

“I seriously doubt that, Mr. Parker. You’re exactly twenty-seven minutes late, and that’s the earliest you’ve been in recent memory. Unless you have any proof that you won’t be late to my class again, your promises are meaningless.”

Sitting down between Ned and MJ, Peter smirked at his teacher and raised his hand.

“If this helps, I won’t be late to your class ever again because it’s the last day of school. Or have you forgotten?”

The rest of the class snickered quietly while Ms. Ross’ glare only intensified.

Talking back to her was something Peter had been wanting to do for months. What with it being the last day and all, it was the perfect opportunity.

“I uh… didn’t recall. Thank you for reminding me.”

Just by the look on her face it was obvious the words were killing her.

“No problem.”

Clearing her throat, Ms. Ross sat back down at her desk.

“There goes the homework I was going to give you. So… I suppose that mean you can talk amongst yourselves for the remainder of the period.”

Peter leaned back in his seat happily as Ned and MJ pulled their chairs up next to him.

“It’s not that I’m ungrateful for what you just did, dude.” Ned began. “But come on. Can you at least tell us where you’ve been?”

He shrugged.

“I haven’t been anywhere, really. I’m just losing track of time, I guess.”

Much to his own disappointment, Peter was still lying to his best friend.

“Okay. But you’ll need to get track of it for high school.”

“I’ll try my best.”

It was definitely not going to get under control.

“Good. Have either of you seen what the Bugle’s been writing?”

Peter raised his eyebrows at him curiously.

“Bugle?”

“The Daily Bugle.” MJ answered. “It’s this really old newspaper that’s been in the city for like… a hundred years.”

“Ninety-three years.” Ned corrected. “They’re still putting out newspapers without going to the internet.”

“I thought they were about to shut down or something.” She added.

“Now they’ve put out an article about Spider-Man, and people think they might be making a comeback. But it’s useless without a picture. They’ve been looking for a good photo of him, and no one’s ever taken a clear one of him.”

That really spiked Peter’s interest.

For starters, he’d wanted to get into photography, and this was a perfect opportunity if he’d ever saw one.

Second of all, he’d be helping out a lot of people by giving them a photo.

It wasn’t about the money for him though.

And who knows?

With the Bugle, the city could actually start to see Spider-Man for who he really was.

There was nothing but upside.

“But whatever.” Ned said. “Do you guys wanna come over to my place after school? Maybe binge-watch The Office like we’ve been talking about?”

Peter and MJ shared a quick glance before turning back to Ned.

Other than the Spider-Man thing, there was one tiny other thing they’d been lying about.

He still had no idea that they were technically dating.

Being fourteen, Peter and MJ didn’t want to put a label on it yet.

At least not that label.

She would have preferred to call it ‘spending time with my future husband’.

In all honesty, he would have said something similar.

“I’d love to, dude. But my Aunt Peggy’s coming into town, and I’m going to visit her.” Peter fibbed.

“And I have to go to Jane’s… something, tonight. I wasn’t listening, but it seems pretty important. Believe me, I’d much rather spend my time with you two dorks. How about tomorrow?”

In reality, they were going to go out on a not-a-date.

“Sorry about this.” Peter apologized once again.

Ned shook his head in response.

“It’s cool.” He smiled. “Besides. I could just hang out with Betty.”

The two smirked at him.

“Get it, Leeds. Watch a horror movie. If you get scared, she’ll obviously hold your hand.”

“What makes you think I’ll get scared?”

MJ chuckled.

“Right. Sorry. I meant WHEN you get scared. If you want, I could lend you my copy of The Shining. I guarantee that you’ll shit yourself.”

“Are you talking about the book or the movie?” Peter asked.

“Both. I have a lot of free time. All work and no play makes MJ a dull girl.”

Ned rolled his eyes at them, putting his headphones in.

“You guys know nothing about romance.”

‘We got together, didn’t we?’ He thought to himself.

With Ned’s music too loud to hear anything, Peter adjusted his chair to face MJ.

“How come you couldn’t come up with a good lie about Jane? You’re usually such a good liar!”

Her ability to lie was one of the weirder things he loved about her.

“I know. And it wasn’t a lie. Jane really does have a… um… I wanna say… rodeo clown gathering? Whatever. Point is, I’m still super pissed off at her, so I’m spending my time with you.”

She told him all about the whole breakfast table thing.

And about the dinner table thing a few months ago.

He got a little bit of an ego boost knowing that she liked him for that long.

After Jane exposing them to her family, MJ spent the day at Peter’s place venting about how much she hated her sister.

And they briefly discussed what she called the ‘Peter-book’.

Normal people would have been freaked out, but not Peter.

On the contrary, he found it quite… romantic, in a weird way.

Especially the drawings.


	42. Chapter 42

Peter knocked on the already open office door with the photos in hand, causing the editor to look up from his desk.

The second he looked at him, Peter was immediately terrified.

This guy’s face had a permanent scowl on it along with bloodshot eyes that made Peter feel like he was looking right through him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the editor beat him to it.

“What do you want, kid?” He asked in a growling voice.

Peter held up the photos in his hand, walking up to him and placing them on his desk.

“I’m Peter. Parker. W-we spoke on the phone earlier about –”

“About the pictures of Spider-Man!” He completed.

“Y-yes Mr. Jameson.”

Jameson picked up the photos from his desk and gestured to a chair in front of him.

“Sit down.”

Peter immediately followed his command.

This was probably the last person he wanted to piss off.

At first, he thought it slightly dishonest to make money from taking pictures of his superhero persona, but he wasn’t doing it for the money.

Yet.

Peter would definitely need a job once he moved out of the house.

“These aren’t bad, kid. I’ll give you three hundred bucks for all of them. That’s the best I can do. Which brings me to my next question. How dumb are you?”

He was a bit taken aback by his words.

“E-excuse me?”

“We’re a failing business that still sells newspapers of all things. You could go to any fancy internet news place and make about a thousand off of these! Why the hell are you coming to us?”

Peter nodded quickly in response.

“I know it’s kind of… odd. But I heard from a few of my friends about this place and that you guys were…”

“Going out of business.” Jameson completed once again.

“Yeah. And there’s a lot of people working here and I wanna make sure they still have jobs and all that.”

He stared back at Peter with his mouth hanging open.

It was a look of complete disbelief.

“You’re a weird kid, you know that?”

“I –”

“That was a rhetorical question. Kids aren’t supposed to be selfless! Is there something wrong with you? Whatever. Don’t answer that. I’ll gladly take the photos.” Jameson said, writing a cheque and handing it over to him. “Give this to my assistant and get out of here.”

He stood up from his desk, ushering Peter towards the door with a hand on his shoulder.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll make one thing clear. You don’t have a job. You’re freelance. And get me more photos! I can already see the headline now! Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?”

Peter stopped in his tracks just before he was about to leave the office.

“Threat or menace? But… he was stopping those criminals in the photos.”

“And he’s always there when a crime happens! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s a criminal too! You’ve done a great service to your city! Nay. Your country!”

That definitely didn’t go as expected.

“Actually, I’m Canadian.”

“Then the world! You’ve seen what Spider-Man can do! He could kill anyone he wanted to and there wouldn’t be a damn thing anyone could do to stop him!”

“But –”

Jameson slammed the door behind him, effectively ending Peter’s argument.

Another reason he wanted to get those kinds of photos out in public was to help people’s image of him.

Instead, they would be calling him a threat or a menace!

Not one of those options sounded good.

He had to suck it up though.

It was either one guy has a bad reputation, or dozens of people lose their jobs.

Stupid responsibility!

Sighing, Peter made his way over to the assistant’s desk to find it empty.

He had no idea what to do now.

This day wasn’t getting off to a great start.

“You looking for Erwin?” A deep voice asked from behind him.

Peter quickly turned around to face a rather tall, bearded man who was dressed in dark clothes.

“Is he Jameson’s assistant?”

The man nodded, looking down at the cheque in Peter’s hands.

“If you want, I can help you out with that, kid.”

At least this guy seemed pretty nice.

He handed the cheque over to him as the man sat down in Erwin’s seat.

“Thank you, sir.”

“You can call me Eddie. Eddie Brock.” He said, extending his hand.

“Peter Parker.”

As the two shook hands, Eddie smirked at him.

“That’s one hell of a grip you’ve got there.”

He may have accidentally used his super strength just a little bit.

But it wasn’t enough to hurt him.

“Sorry.”

“Nah. It’s a good thing.” Eddie reassured him, handing the cheque back. “If you need anything, just give me a shout.”

 

 

MJ smiled down on Peter as she ran her hands softly through his hair.

She was sitting on the top bunk of his new bed with him stretched out, placing his head in her lap, staring up at the ceiling.

“And he’s a like, Spider-Man: Threat or Menace! But now I can’t go to another place because I want them to stay in business!”

After those words, her smile fell.

Now that they knew about each others feelings, and had an unspoken but well-known agreement that they were going to get married, she could be as open and honest about her thoughts.

MJ sucked at sharing things.

But not with Peter.

“Do you want me to threaten him?” She asked nonchalantly. “I already have a few options of what knife to use. Maybe I break into his home at night. Give him a little shave on the mustache. Amongst other places.”

It actually felt good now that they could be completely honest around one another.

Peter shrugged, clearly unphased by the question.

“That’s actually pretty sweet. But no. He doesn’t deserve it. And it’s not a big deal. People didn’t exactly like me before.”

“Because they’re idiots. Who wouldn’t like you? You’re so…” MJ trailed off, leaning down to peck his lips briefly. “Perfect. And…” She whispered, kissing him again. “Kind. And…” Kiss. “Smart.” Kiss. “And a bit of an idiot.” Kiss. “But you’re my idiot.”

She didn’t exactly know when he ‘became hers’, but he was.

MJ was slightly possessive of Peter.

Thankfully, it wasn’t that noticeable.

He smiled up at her, closing his eyes as her hand continued to run through his hair.

“That’s all I need. Well… not ALL I need. I was just trying to say something as nice as you did. I still need food, oxygen, water, Aunt May, you, Ned, Jeremy, a roof over my head, and Clone Wars. Whatever. Point is, you’re awesome.”

“Most obvious statement ever.”


	43. Chapter 43

“Guys!” Ned shouted excitedly, running into the living room where Peter and MJ sat. “Literally the best thing that could ever happen happened!”

Instead of finishing his story like a normal person, he just ran back outside as fast as he came inside.

From the couch, Peter and MJ could hear the door open and slam shut quickly, leaving them staring at the doorway curiously.

“Did you catch any of that?” She asked.

“Nope. I swear. If I got a loonie every time I didn’t understand him, do you know how rich I’d be?”

MJ had been trying to learn Canadian slang just so she could understand him.

But it definitely wasn’t easy.

“Is a loonie the one-dollar coin or the two-dollar coin?”

“One-dollar.”

“Then you’d have about fifteen bucks.”

His references also weren’t easy.

Peter often refrained from using them for her benefit.

“Exactly. So… not that rich.”

Ned came running back into Peter’s house, smiling like a moron with his hand latched onto someone else’s.

Which just happened to belong to his neighbor, Betty Brant.

It’s not that MJ disliked her.

From what she’d been told, Betty was a perfectly decent human being.

The standard research backed up Ned’s claims.

Elizabeth Brant.

Born May 15th, 2001.

Blood type: A –

No siblings.

Straight A’s at her school.

No evidence of committing a crime, but not an impossible claim.

However, MJ wasn’t going to pretend she was comfortable with having Betty around.

If it took her about ten years to consider Ned Leeds as an acquaintance and eventual friend, there was very little hope for Betty to rise up in the ranks.

Not to mention that her friend group wasn’t accepting new applicants at the time.

That would be in two months from now, and it was a complicated process.

Interviews, background checks, family history, blood test, medical records, and possibly giving them a tracker.

Those were just part of step one.

In total, MJ had come up with twenty.

She came up with the system after Ned permanently became her friend.

For obvious reasons, he had no idea that the thing existed.

On the other hand, she told Peter everything.

Betty seemed to be nice enough.

Even though she was invading their social gathering.

As the two sat down, hand in hand, MJ could only notice that they were as close to each other as humanly possible.

If she squinted, they would form into one weird blob of Netty.

“What happened?” Peter asked. “Did you get a new haircut?”

They clearly had no idea that he was joking.

There wasn’t any explanation she could think of that explained their stupidity.

“No!” Ned and Betty said in unison, laughing while holding up their hands. “We’re dating!”

“Wow. I had no idea.”

Exaggerated sarcasm was something they didn’t seem to pick up on either.

“Keep up, Peter!”

This was one of the few times MJ found herself genuinely scared.

It was like they were robots.

Or had some kind of mind link.

Pretty much any plot device for an end of the world type movie.

“I miss you, babe.” Ned whispered.

“Aww, babe. I miss you more.”

They were literally sitting right next to each other!

“So…” MJ began awkwardly. “How long have you two been dating?”

“Twenty-three minutes!”

She then grabbed Peter by the collar of his flannel shirt, standing up from the couch.

“Cool. You won’t mind if we leave you alone for… never mind.”

They weren’t even paying attention to her speaking.

The Netty blob had no perception outside of itself.

MJ dragged Peter into the backyard, standing as far away from the house as possible.

He seemed to be just as freaked out as she was.

“What the hell is happening?” Peter whispered.

“I know! Twenty-three fucking minutes! And they’re already calling each other babe! Never EVER give me a stupid pet name!”

He raised his hand up in defence.

“Never. It’s creepy! Now they’re gonna be one of those annoying high school couples who do everything together! And not like us. I mean EVERYTHING. Holding hands in class. Freaking out when they’re not joined at the hip. They’ll be at OUR table, MJ! They’re already saying they miss each other when they’re side by side!”

MJ clapped in agreement.

“Thank you! Look at them, then look at us. On one side, you have a creepy, codependent, rushed, clearly unhealthy relationship. AKA Ned and Betty!”

“Exactly!” Peter exclaimed. “We’re the normal ones! We were best friends first.”

“You were my first friend in general.”

“You helped me when I was sick or beaten up.”

“You actually liked me for me.”

“We support each other.”

“It’s not stalking if we both do it.”

“Technically, I didn’t break into your home.”

“There’s nothing wrong with me drawing you.”

“You threatened my bully for me.”

“I like you because you’re selfless. Not because… what exactly does Ned see in Betty?”

Peter opened in mouth to speak, but no words came out.

MJ was finally able to ask a question that she couldn’t find the answer to.

“Now that I think about it, he’s never actually told me WHY he likes her. So far, it’s just been ‘she’s the best’ and ‘I like Betty so much’. But that’s all. I never really thought about it until now. It’s not THAT weird. Is it?”

Turning around to face the window, she could easily see Ned and Betty, who were just staring at the wall and smiling.

“It’s weird.” MJ said, backing up towards the fence. “They probably just like each other because their hands touched once! I mean, not exactly that. I just meant they’re like this because of some small reason that shouldn’t even matter. And he calls us the weird ones!”

She at least had to admit that being obsessed with one another was a little unconventional compared to ‘normal’ relationships.

But if people looked past that part, Peter and MJ had a relationship that was healthier than most.

They respected and trusted one another.

At the start, they decided to be completely honest.

And both knew that they didn’t have to spend every minute of every day together.

Ned and Betty didn’t seem to get the memo on that last one.

“So…” Peter began, looking over her shoulder into his house. “Are we just gonna leave them in there? Because I can hear everything they’re saying and I wanna throw up.”

MJ’s brows furrowed.

“Are they talking about… it?”

He immediately scoffed.

“That would be less disgusting. I’ll just be paraphrasing here. The real thing is so much worse.” Peter then cleared his throat, speaking in a high-pitched voice to imitate Betty. “I love you SOO much!” He switched to a deeper voice for Ned. “Well I love you more! Not possible, my scrumptious piece of cheesecake! You –”

MJ quickly placed a hand over his mouth to stop him from talking.

“I get the picture! They’re annoying as fuck. Would it be wrong to break them up?” She asked carefully.

“Yes! It’s bad, but not unbearable. Plus, Ned’s happy. And… happiness has turned him into a moron. Like a zombie, but instead of eating your brain, he just needs to be with Betty.”

She looked back at him, crossing her arms with an unimpressed look on her face.

“How is that supposed to be bearable?! We can’t even watch tv in your own home!”

“If worse comes to worse, we can just find something else to do.”

MJ shrugged.

“Like what? How’d you spend your summers back home?”

“I just worked on the farm. Let me tell you, staying inside all day is so much better.”

Ned and Betty weren’t even using the living room for its intended purpose.

They were still looking at the wall!

And the tv wasn’t even in that direction.

It became extremely clear that they had set up a little nest for themselves right on the carpet.

“Fine.” MJ sighed. “We won’t break them up. But if I lose my mind, that’s on you.”


	44. Chapter 44

As Peter was heading towards the elevator in the Daily Bugle to head home, he looked across the floor towards the corner of the room to see Eddie talking to a group of people.

One of which was a rather tall Asian man, dressed in an incredibly dark business suit.

From their body language, they appeared to be old friends.

Shaking hands with each other, the other man began leading the group of people towards the elevator with a smile on his face.

Peter decided to walk over to Eddie.

This was for two reasons.

The first was to let them have more room on the elevator.

The second was because he was curious.

“Who were they?” Peter asked, gesturing over to the elevator.

Eddie looked up at him as he was loading up his bag.

“Homeless people. I’ve been rounding them up and sending them down to the F.E.A.S.T. Center.”

“F.E.A.S.T.?” He asked again.

“Yeah. It stands for… something pretty complicated. It’s a homeless shelter run by Martin Li, that guy I was just talking to. I’m going down to interview them once they’re settled.”

Eddie knew that Peter was going to ask another question, and answered even before he could speak.

“It’s for a story I’ve been working on for the past few months. Homeless people have been disappearing for a while now. I don’t have any solid proof yet, but from the previous interviews I’ve done, the idea is that they’re being taken for experiments.”

If he wasn’t interested before, he sure was now.

“So, what are you –”

“Look, Peter.” He interrupted. “I’m glad you’re asking questions. But this might be something dangerous, and you’re just a kid. I don’t want you getting hurt or anything.”

Well, he was Spider-Man.

How dangerous could it be for him?

“But I wanna help.”

“And that’s a good thing. If you want, you can go down to F.E.A.S.T. and volunteer there. Don’t go getting yourself kidnapped. Got it?”

Peter sighed.

There was no reason he couldn’t volunteer, and help Eddie investigate.

Just as Spider-Man instead of Peter Parker.

“I got it.”

He smiled down on him as the two headed towards the elevator.

“Good. But if you see something, call the police. Or me.”

Of course, he would.

After Spider-Man stopped things first.

 

 

The one problem - amongst many other problems that Peter would choose to ignore - with Ned and Betty dating, is that he rarely had chance to hang out with his best friend.

Ned’s new idea of ‘hanging out’ was bringing Betty to all their usual places, and holding onto her hand the entire time.

The opportunities for actual fun were quite rare this summer.

Which was why Peter was thrilled to finally have Ned at least call him.

Normally, it would have been no big deal.

But this was a pretty big thing based on recent events.

Peter just missed talking to him.

So, he answered literally the second it rang.

On his way walking to MJ’s, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and held it to his ear.

“Hey, Ned!” Peter exclaimed.

The happiness was short-lived, however, because it wasn’t just Ned on the other side.

What he should have predicted was that Betty was there too.

It wasn’t that he disliked her.

But he just wasn’t good with people.

Having someone else join their friend group this quickly was a large adjustment period.

Not to mention that Peter and MJ had nothing in common with her other than Ned.

At least that was as far as they knew.

“Hey, Peter!” They responded in unison.

He honestly couldn’t remember a time when those two said something by themselves.

“So… what’s up, guys?”

He stopped walking and leaned against a metal pole, placing his hand on it.

“We have an idea to get you with MJ!”

Peter’s grip tightened in surprise, crushing part of the metal in his hand.

“Uh… th-thanks. B-but I don’t really need help. And seriously, Ned?! You told Betty?!”

Even though he was already with MJ, he couldn’t help put be a little disappointed at Ned.

The rule was that you don’t tell people about the girl your friend likes.

A rule that Ned spoke of often.

The hypocrite.

“Don’t worry, Peter.” Betty laughed. “I promise, I won’t tell anyone.”

“She’s perfect, dude! You can trust her! Anyways, there’s a fair we’re going to tomorrow that’s upstate, and we thought you should bring MJ! It would be the perfect chance to tell her how you feel!”

Spending a day trying to date a girl you’re already with is probably the least productive thing that could be done in a summer.

It was going to be hard to say no to that one.

“Well, um, I don’t know if Aunt May would let me.”

“I already asked her.” Ned stated. “She said she’s okay with it!”

They really covered all the bases.

Now it was impossible to say no.

And there wasn’t a single believable excuse he could use.

“Okay.” Peter said through his gritted teeth with his eyes closed. “We’ll see you tomorrow then.”

 

 

Peter slowly backed away from MJ as she just stared at the wall.

Telling her about their new plans that had been forced on them was like ripping off a Band-Aid.

Do it quickly, and let the scab bleed all over the place.

Even though he loved her, he still didn’t want to be around if she was pissed off.

“So, you couldn’t say no?” MJ finally spoke up.

Peter stopped in his tracks, keeping one hand on the window, just in case he had to leave quickly.

“No.” He sighed. “They already asked Aunt May about it. And I couldn’t tell them about… us. They would have made us go on double dates!”

Instead of being angry, MJ fell back on her bed calmly and groaned.

“I guess one day of hell is a lot better than constant social outings with another couple. Who knows? It might be fun. It probably won’t. But it might.”

Peter sat down next to her as she buried her face in his side.

“See! Not so bad. We both love Ned.”

“That’s a little bit of a stretch, bug-boy.” MJ mumbled. “I’ll admit that I like Leeds, but love is a strong word.”

“I’ll rephrase. You like Ned, and fairs are always fun. Ferris wheels, ring toss, great food.”

Unfortunately, she was also able to point out some negatives.

“Crowds, drunk idiots, stoned idiots, more idiots, Ned and Betty acting like a couple, potential food poisoning, and we might run into a horror movie type villain who likes to slaughter teenagers at upstate fairs.”

Peter raised his eyebrows at her curiously.

“But you love horror movie villains.”

“I’ll admit that not everything about it is bad. And if there’s a haunted house or something, I could scare children. That seems like enough upside. Which mask should I bring? Jigsaw or Michael Myers?”

Once again, Peter wasn’t freaked out by her ‘odd’ statements like that.

He only shrugged it off as if it was normal.

“How about Freddy Krueger? Can’t go wrong with the classics.”

MJ turned back over to smile devilishly up at Peter.

“Genius. And don’t worry. I won’t scare them too much. They go into the haunted house to get scared. I’d be doing those people a favour.”

“I wasn’t worried. But if you want to make Ned and Betty terrified, I actually have some ideas.”

If they were going to a place they didn’t want to, they might as well have some fun with it.

“Tomorrow just got SOO much better.” MJ lauged.


	45. Chapter 45

Tony knew that he could never replace Richard or Ben.

He wouldn’t dare try, nor did he want to.

But having Peter visit him in the lab brought back some old memories.

Some of the best times he had with Richard and Ben was trying to build little gadgets.

That passion had clearly been passed down to their son/nephew.

Tony smiled to himself, watching Peter work so happily and talk about the design so excitedly that he could barely understand what he was saying.

It had actually been nice to have a Parker back in his life.

The circumstances were definitely not ideal, what with Peter losing his uncle and all.

But after the funeral, they’d started talking.

Not very often, although Tony always looked forward to it.

“And then MJ’s gonna turn this on, and Ned and Betty are gonna totally freak out!”

Unfortunately, Tony was literally pulled away from the moment as Steve grabbed him by the arm and took him outside of the lab.

Peter was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice that he was gone.

“Seriously, Tony?” Steve asked with disapproval in his voice. “You’re letting a fourteen-year-old make doohickeys just so he can play a practical joke on his friends?”

Tony smirked, looking at Peter through the glass.

“Isn’t that what science is for? And you should hear what he’s got planned. Couldn’t have done it better myself. Second of all, no one calls gadgets ‘doohickeys’ these days. How the hell Nat puts up with you is beyond me.”

Steve sighed, shaking his head.

“It’s even worse that you’re encouraging him. Can you at least let me talk to him?”

Getting to meet his former girlfriend’s great-nephew?

That wouldn’t be weird at all.

“Be my guest, good sir.” Tony replied dramatically with a bow, gesturing to the door as they slid open.

He clearly wasn’t impressed by his theatrics, and walked into the lab as stern as ever.

Why did the captain have to be the voice of reason all the time?

 

 

“So, yeah.” Peter continued, looking down at his creation. “I haven’t really figured out a way to explain to them how it works or how I got it, but you know. I’ll cross the bridge when I get to it.”

Steve cleared his throat, causing the boy to stop talking immediately and face Steve.

Peter stood up as straight as an arrow, saluting Steve.

“Cap-captain.” He stuttered. “Sorry. Do I – do I need to do that? I mean, I don’t wanna be disrespectful to you, sir. So, uh… hi. Big fan, I’m Spider-Man.”

Steve’s shoulders immediately relaxed, now less stern, and more amused.

“It’s fine, kid.” He said, extending his hand, which Peter shook firmly. “Captain Steve Rogers.”

“Peter Parker. Not a captain.”

There was a certain eagerness in his voice.

After this brief interaction, Steve realized just how young this kid was.

“So, what have you got here?”

Peter quickly looked over to the table, and back to him.

“It’s just a little thing I’m using for a joke.” He responded nervously. “I swear, sir, no one’s going to get hurt. Except me, kind of. But my bones are like, seriously strong, so, I’d be fine! And even if I did get hurt, I heal really fast! So –”

Steve smiled, holding up his hand to stop his nervous rambling.

“Don’t worry about it. You seem like a good kid. And it’s a harmless prank. Just try not to get yourself and trouble, and own up to your mistakes if something goes wrong.”

Peter’s nervousness turned into delight.

“You sound just like your videos!” He laughed.

“Videos?”

 

 

As MJ sat in the car on the way to the train station, she kept her head facing the window, trying to ignore Jane as best she could.

She was indeed still pissed off at her sister.

The shunning process would span over a course of three years.

And that was being generous.

Unfortunately, they were still family, somehow, which required MJ to actually speak to her when the horrible occasion presented itself.

The car came to a stop outside of the station, and MJ picked up her backpack, opening the door.

“Do you have everything you need?” Jane asked.

She nodded slowly in response, still looking away from her sister.

“Yep. Freddy Krueger mask, money, autograph book in case we run into murderers, and knife.”

“Knife? Does mom know about this?”

MJ scoffed.

“You gonna tell mom and dad something else about me that’s none of your business? Because that would be just dandy!”

Stepping out of the vehicle, she slammed the car door behind her, sticking her head back in through the window to hesitantly meet Jane’s eyes.

“Also, I love you or whatever.”

“Aww. You admitted it.”

With a roll of her eyes, MJ left the window before calling back out to her.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m still mad at you though.”

Taking a train upstate with Ned, Betty, and Peter was a hell of a lot better than spending a few hours with Jane in a car.

And MJ always loved trains.

Especially ones where people got murdered.

Those only seemed to be found in novels, however.

Looking across the busy station, MJ was able to see Peter through the crowd, sitting on a bench with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

One thing in particular stood out to her.

It was the first time she saw him wearing a t-shirt.

Peter insisted on wearing long sleeves wherever he went to hide his suit under his clothes.

Even though it had made him absolutely miserable to be that warm in the summer.

Peter definitely deserved a break from Spider-Man-ing.

And he actually looked pretty good without a hoodie or flannel.

With his recent… growth, his arms were near impossible to go unnoticed.

Amongst other things.

“Hey, bug-boy.” MJ said, sitting down next to him and crossing her legs.

She knew he didn’t like that nickname one bit.

Although she did love him, he needed to be messed with every once in a while.

“Are you ever gonna let that one go?”

“Nope.” She responded immediately. “Did you bring the thing?”

Peter held up his backpack, smiling brightly.

“Made it this morning! Mr. Stark had to help me out with some of the complicated parts, but the design was all mine. You know he had this huge closet of tech that was just sitting around? And I got to meet Captain America!”

MJ couldn’t help but notice that his eyes kept darting up and down as he spoke, earning him a light nudge in the arm with her elbow.

“You checking out my legs, Parker?” She smirked, causing him to blush.

“N-no! I mean I- I was looking at them and you’re wearing shorts and I’ve never seen you wear those before. B-but I wasn’t trying to objectify you or anything like that!”

MJ leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“Chill out.” She reassured him. “I was checking you out like a second ago. And since we’re honest with each other, I do it all the time. We’re together, so it’s not a big deal. You’re allowed to look at me, and I’m allowed to look at you.”

Peter let out a deep breath, no longer freaking out.

“Right. Sorry.”

She also knew it was pointless to try to get him to stop apologizing so much.

“Heads up, bug-boy.” MJ said, gesturing to the other side of the station. “Netty’s here.”

The two didn’t see them since they were covered by the crowd.

Peter stood up from the bench, and MJ of course had to mess with him a little more.

When she stood beside him, he let out a small squeak as MJ gave him a light smack on the ass.

“Let’s have some fun, then.”

Peter and MJ made their way over to the other couple, and yet another realization came over her.

He wasn’t slouching to hide his growth spurt, and he wasn’t wearing a hoodie to hide his muscles.

This realization arrived far too late, because Peter now stood right in front of Ned, towering over a boy that he had been shorter than about a month ago.

“Hey, guys!” Betty greeted happily, holding onto Ned’s hand.

Thankfully, she didn’t know Peter well enough yet to notice a change in his appearance.

Ned on the other hand, spent almost every minute of every day with Peter, and immediately noticed.

“Dude.” He began with surprise in his voice. “Did you get taller?”

Peter too realized his apparel mistake, looking down at himself.

“I uh… put lifts into my shoes.”

That was probably the fastest he had ever come up with a lie.

“He’s kind of self-conscious of his height.” MJ agreed. “I mean, look at the loser. He can barely pass for twelve.”

Ned and Betty actually seemed to believe this story.

“Oh… come on, dude. You’re not THAT short. But am I just going blind, or have you always –”

He was interrupted by an alarm from his phone going off, ending his observation.

Ned took his phone out of his pocket, eyes widening slightly.

“We’d better get going.” Betty stated, heading towards the train and holding his hand tighter.

Peter and MJ let out a sigh of relief, following the couple through the crowds.


	46. Chapter 46

Predictably, Peter and Ned fell fast asleep the second they sat down in their compartment of the train.

Needless to say, MJ was quite happy with the phenomenon, because it left her plenty of time to ‘get to know Betty’.

The preferred term was ‘interrogating’.

And truth be told, she wanted to like Betty, although their personalities, and everything else about them, seemed to be polar opposites.

Dark clothes and colourful clothes.

Curly hair and straight hair.

Tall and short.

Bored and interested.

Introvert and extrovert.

But MJ wasn’t going to dismiss the potential friendship because of that.

Sitting across from Betty with and expressionless face, she looked her up and down, studying her and going over what characteristics she could find.

“So, Ms. Brant.” MJ began. “Tell me about yourself.”

MJ may have accidentally added an intimidating tone to her words.

At this point, it was more of a reflex to try and scare people, even if she didn’t want to.

However, much to her surprise, the blonde girl didn’t react as if she was freaked out or anything.

Instead, she smiled.

“Please, call me Betty.”

“Seems reasonable enough. Now then. I make it a habit to get to know the people who I’m going to interact with on a regular basis. So far, it’s just been loser number one, and loser number two.” She said, gesturing to the two sleeping boys. “But seeing as you’re shacking up with loser number two, you’ve just found yourself on that list.”

A light blush began to spread to Betty’s face.

“O-okay. Cool. B-but we’re not shacking up.”

“Trust me. You will be eventually. If I know Leeds, and I do, you’ll be living with him the second you get out of high school.”

“That’s… kind of sweet. Anyways, I uh, like to read a lot. And write. I’ve been trying to get a job at a news place or something so I could work towards being a journalist or something like that.”

MJ smirked at her, taking a notepad of out her backpack along with a pen.

Flipping it open and clicking the pen, she quickly made a small group of columns to write down the score.

“So far so good. You’re already moving up in the ranks.”

Betty raised her eyebrows at her curiously.

“Ranks?”

Might as well be honest.

“I’m not good with people. At all. I’ve never really had luck getting close to people before loser number one came along. So, naturally, this process is extremely complex.”

As MJ turned back down to the notepad, Betty’s voice came out softly.

“Why don’t you have luck getting close to people?” She asked.

If memory served her correctly, it was easy to get to know people by sharing thoughts and feelings.

“My family is full of assholes. Especially my sisters. Especially my oldest sister. They’re all annoying as fuck and go out of their way to make my life miserable. Also, people just suck in general. And as far as everyone else is concerned, I’m some kind of freak or whatever.”

It felt pretty weird to tell a near stranger all this.

The only other person who she’d shared something like this with was Peter, only to a greater degree.

MJ didn’t even know why she was saying all this crap.

“I don’t think you’re a freak.” Betty stated calmly.

She only scoffed in response.

“Please. You don’t even know me. Let’s go over the facts. I interview people who I want to be friends with. A few months ago, I was planning to murder your boyfriend so I could get a chance to be alone with Peter. People at my school have a rumour that I’m a vampire. I have a Freddie Krueger mask and some weird tech thing in my backpack that I was going to use to prank you two. I like to sketch people in crisis. I break into people’s homes to threaten them. Plus, I’ve committed maybe half a dozen other criminal offenses. But I wasn’t caught, obviously. And they deserved it.”

Prepared for Betty to freak out, and possibly call the police after her statement of guilt, MJ discreetly grabbed her backpack where her knife was concealed.

Murder was out of the question.

Light threats were acceptable.

But MJ had almost certainly ruined this potential friendship.

“I still don’t think you’re a freak.” Betty shrugged. “And Ned told me about what you did to Eugene Thompson. He definitely deserved what he got.”

The blabbermouth.

She should have expected him to break eventually.

MJ was anything but mad, however.

“What about me threatening Ned?”

“It’s normal. Who wouldn’t threaten someone who knows about their secret crush?”

“Only a moron.” MJ laughed. “Have you… ever done anything like that?”

She shook her head in response.

“Nope. But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it. I’d lose my shit if another girl was even talking to Ned.”

Maybe she had more in common with Betty than she previously thought.

Based on her attitude towards Ned, she too was pretty possessive of her partner.

“Understandable.” MJ agreed. “And as hard for me as it is to say this, I may have… misjudged you. Which sucks because I’m supposed to be great at reading people. And I feel kind of bad. I kind of thought that you and Ned were a little bit of a weird couple. But, yeah. You’re not. You’re actually really nice and all, so… I’m sorry.”

She hated apologizing almost as much as she hated being wrong.

It was on extremely rare occasions in which both of these occurred.

“It’s fine.” Betty smiled. “And don’t worry. I won’t tell Peter that you like him yet.”

“Thanks. And I won’t try to scare the shit out you guys today. Can’t make any promises in the future, but today’s a win.”

MJ looked down at her notepad, and tossed it out the window of the moving train.

Betty Brant was officially on her list of friends.

Which only had three people on it.

But it was huge progress compared to eight months ago when that list was literally nonexistent.

“Cool. As long as we’re sharing though, can you tell me some of your ‘criminal offences’?”

That seemed pretty fair.

“Fine. But they’re mostly for Eugene Thompson.”

In all honesty, MJ was kind of fudging the numbers on the criminal offences.

It wasn’t so much as half a dozen, as it was closer to three dozen.

Each one of her victims deserved what they got.

“I broke into Eugene Thompson’s house. I assaulted him, threatened him, put a skunk of his face, pretty much destroyed his ability to have kids, and I stole a few thousand bucks from his room. But I gave it to charity, so that’s fine. One time, Peter and I broke into this building.”

Which resulted in him getting bitten by a radioactive spider.

“I once blackmailed a few of my teachers to give me more time in the library. And I drove a car without a driver’s license or adult supervision.”

Surprisingly, MJ and Betty bonded quite a bit on the train ride, even though it was only for a few hours.

Through their trading of stories, she became less of an annoying girlfriend of Ned Leeds, to someone who MJ could actually talk to.

She even surprised herself a little bit.

Friends weren’t as bad as they seemed, and it wasn’t a burden to be around this short, blonde girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this, but I'm not going to be updating this for a short while. I'll be back in just over a week.


	47. Chapter 47

Ned stared at Peter with a slightly shocked expression as his friend swallowed the last piece of pie whole.

Tossing the tin into the nearby garbage can, Peter wiped his mouth clean with his arm, turning to Ned, eyebrows raised.

“What?” He asked curiously.

“Dude. You just ate an entire blueberry pie by yourself without breaking a sweat. And don’t take this the wrong way, but you’ve been eating a shitload of food lately. So, how are you not dead yet? Because I’m pretty sure that much food would kill someone.”

Ever since his little growth spurt, increased muscle mass, and swinging on a web from building to building, Peter’s metabolism had gone through the roof.

No matter how much he ate, it was burned off in, like, twenty minutes.

At this point, Peter was practically a vacuum that sucked up nothing but food.

And the food served at this fair was really damn good.

“I’ve been, uh… jogging.” He answered. “You know? Gotta get yourself a hobby and all that.”

Ned shrugged it off, appearing to accept Peter’s answer.

“Cool. But you might wanna avoid doing all that messy eating in front of MJ.”

Peter glanced away from Ned to look ahead towards Betty and MJ, who were standing in front of some sort of carnival game.

Whatever happened on the train ride was definitely making them get along better.

It also caused her to call of the prank, much to the disappointment of him however.

“I don’t really think she’d mind, dude.” He stated as they walked back to rejoin them. “MJ’s really… understanding about stuff. And we’re honest with each other. If she had a problem, she’d tell me. Plus, she had this gigantic turkey leg one time and got barbecue sauce everyone.” Peter laughed. “It was adorable.”

“Are you sure you guys aren’t dating already?”

They kind of were.

Just without the label of dating but were technically engaged.

And they still weren’t going to tell anyone.

Their relationship was no one’s business but their own.

There was absolutely no reason they had to know.

“I’m pretty sure, Ned.” Peter fibbed.

“But that’s gonna change tonight, right? Because you’re finally going to win her over?”

“I don’t need to win her over. We know she loves me, and MJ’s not an object I can win.”

He stopped talking at the last second as they stood next to Betty and MJ in front of the game, which after a quick look, Peter saw that is was some kind of throwing game.

From what he could gather, the more cans knocked over by the baseball, the more points they got.

“True.” Ned whispered. “But there are a ton of objects here that you CAN win. I mean, I know you suck at any strength-based thing, but you could get lucky.”

‘God, if you only knew.’ Peter thought to himself.

MJ cocked her arm back, and with one throw, knocked down all the cans on the shelf.

“Congratulations! Take your pick from any prize!” The man shouted happily, gesturing to the wall.

“Give me the mace.” MJ said proudly.

Her love of medieval weapons was one of the many other things Peter loved about her.

The man’s smile immediately fell.

“Terribly sorry, miss. But that mace is for display only. We can’t go handing out real weapons to children.”

Clearly, the fact that it was real only increased her desire to own the object.

“Why the hell do you even have a real mace on display at a fair?” MJ clapped back. “It makes no sense. But whatever, moron. I’ll offer you a deal, sir. I’ll take that mace. No questions asked. And in return, you get to keep this guy.”

She then grabbed Peter by the neckline of his shirt, presenting him to the man running the game.

“He’s a hard worker, grew up on a farm, Canadian, stronger than he looks, and only slightly used.”

“You’re offering me a child for a weapon?” He asked in disbelief.

“I said no questions asked!”

Peter, Ned, and Betty were just left gathered around, not knowing what to do next.

He leaned over towards MJ and whispered.

“You’re not really going to trade me for a weapon, right?”

“Of course not. I’m just playing hardball. Work with me here, Parker.” She resumed her negotiation with the man, now with an exaggerated high-pitched voice, complete with a fake smile. “He’ll move furniture for you, paint your walls, tutor your kids, and do it for free! Isn’t that right, Peter?”

He let out a deep breath, deciding to play along with her plan.

Whatever it was.

“Yep. I even speak French. You won’t find a deal like this anywhere else.”

The man sighed, shaking his head.

“I have no idea what your idea is, or what the point is, but I don’t want to keep your friend.”

“So, is that a no, or…?” MJ trailed off.

“No.”

“Damn it! Anyways…” She looked down at his nametag then back up at him. “Albert. How about a counteroffer? I’ll throw in these two if I get to keep this one for myself.”

Seriously. What was the big deal in giving a fourteen-year-old girl a weapon that could kill someone?

It was like the world had gone crazy or something.

“I thought I made it clear that I don’t want any children in exchange.”

“Where do you stand on adults?”

“Still a firm no. But I can offer you anything else here.”

MJ scanned the entire wall of prizes.

Gigantic teddy bears…

That was it.

Nothing else was up there.

The face she made next was one in disgust.

MJ already had something to cuddle with, and that thing was Peter.

She had no reason to even need anything else.

Nor did she want it.

Clearly unimpressed with the stuffed animals, MJ planted her feet in the field, refusing to give up.

“Do I REALLY look like the kind of person who would want a pink teddy bear?”

Since she was dressed in dark clothes without a single bit of colour in them, the answer was pretty obvious.

“We have green if that helps.” Albert said, gesturing to the wall. “And blue, purple, red, yellow, and orange.”

“No fucking way, Jose.”

In a huff, she stormed off from the game with Ned and Betty, leaving Peter alone there.

Staring back at him, Albert finally spoke up.

“Are you going to play?”

Peter could definitely win, but much like MJ, he had no desire for a gigantic teddy bear.

“Sorry, no. Look, sir, is there anything you could do for her?”

It was at that exact moment that Peter got a really stupid idea.

“Have you ever heard of Spider-Man?"

He appeared to have piqued Albert’s curiosity.

“I have. My daughter’s a big fan. Where exactly are you going with this?”

“Well, I happen to take photos of him for a paper back in New York, and –”

Albert chuckled slightly.

“What kind of idiot still uses newspapers?”

That idiot would be J. Jonah Jameson.

“Doesn’t matter. Point is, I could get you a few photos of him for your daughter, and maybe and autograph or two? Of course, this would be in exchange for that lovely weapon over there.”

Albert pondered on Peter’s words for a few moments, before taking out a piece of paper and a pen.

Handing it over to him, he glanced down at what was written.

“Here’s my address. Send the photos, and could he sign them out to Monica?”

Peter jumped up an easy two feet in the air, grabbing the mace with one hand and holding it as if it weighed nothing.

For anyone else, it would have been pretty heavy.

“I’ll make sure that he does. And could you maybe not tell anyone about this? People kind of don’t like him down there.”

Albert nodded in response.

“I’m a man of my work, kid. And maybe don’t tell anyone about your friend owning a mace.”

Slinging it over his shoulder, he began walking backwards towards MJ, calling back to him.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Tapping his future wife on the shoulder with a smile on his face, she turned around with a disappointed look.

The disappointment melted away once she realized what Peter possessed.

“You got it?”

“Took some negotiating, but yeah.” Handing it over to her, she grabbed it with both hands, grinning devilishly. “Nice going, Sir Michelle Jones.”

“Since I’m a woman, I would have been called Dame Michelle Jones in Medieval times, but it’s still badass. Thanks, loser.”

Forgetting about the presence of Ned and Betty, MJ pressed a kiss to Peter’s cheek, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

The other two however, saw this as an unusual display of affection from a usually distant person.

Realizing her mistake, MJ looked back at the other couple.

“It’s uh… what people did as a thank you in Medieval times.”

Trying to fix things, she grabbed Peter by the chin, kissing both cheeks quickly.

“I’ll see you around then, friendo.”

Walking away immediately, Ned and Betty crept up behind Peter in awe.

“Are you sure you’re not together yet?” He asked once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm back! Sorry it took so long. Anyway, I've been thinking of doing another AU which I'm finally going to start soon. And it's probably going to seem like a really bad idea to people, but I think I could make it work. So, bear with me here. I'm going to be mixing Spider-Man with Batman. My idea started off as Peter as Batman, MJ as Catwoman, and Norman Osborn as the Joker (since Willem Dafoe would make an amazing Joker in my opinion). And after months of reworking the plot, I'll be going through with it. Just getting this out now so it's not a surprise when it inevitably blows up in my face.  
> P.S. Please don't hate me for how messed up the Peter/MJ relationship will get in the upcoming fic.


	48. Chapter 48

Needless to say, the train ride back to New York was immensely boring.

To make things even worse for Ned and Betty’s plan, Peter and MJ were nowhere closer to becoming boyfriend and girlfriend.

The kiss on the cheek was a good start in their opinion, but it wasn’t what they had in mind.

Going to the fair and having Peter and MJ spend time together was supposed to end both of their craziness.

Even though she had ‘cleared things up’ with Ned, and they were friends, he was still terrified of that psychopath.

And Peter was no better than her.

He was always disappearing, mysterious cuts and bruises on his face and body faded just as often as they came, he broke into MJ’s house, and looked like he had grown half a foot overnight.

That part didn’t make him crazy, but it was equally weird.

While he was cuddled up next to Betty, sitting across from an exhausted Peter and MJ, the two of them decided it was time for their last desperate attempt to get them together.

“Do you guys want to play a game?” Ned asked right out of the blue.

MJ, with her legs draped across Peter’s lap, raised her head off of the window and glared at him.

He immediately paled in fear.

There was a very good chance that she was going to murder him.

“How about the quiet game?” She groaned. “How about you guys let me get some sleep before I give my mace some practice swings?”

“She doesn’t mean it.” Betty whispered.

MJ sat up properly, rubbing her eyes and letting out a long yawn.

“I don’t mean it yet, Brant. But my offer still stands on the quiet game. What exactly did you have in mind?”

Something that could seriously backfire on them.

“Truth or dare.” Ned answered. “We go around, ask someone truth or dare, the victim gets to ask next, and you get to chicken out of one thing each. You can only pick truth two times in a row before going back to dare. Sounds good?”

MJ’s interest in the game was apparent by her grin.

“Sounds good. Leeds. Truth or dare?”

“I, uh… I was thinking I would ask first.”

“Truth or dare?” She asked once again, her voice more demanding.

“Um, truth?”

How bad could it be?

MJ was batshit crazy, but not a monster.

At least that was as far as he knew.

“When was the last time you wet yourself?”

Ned quickly turned from pale to blushing a shade of red that resembled Spider-Man’s suit.

The other three members of the group started snickering.

It could only get weirder from here though.

“Eleven.” He said in embarrassment. “Satisfied?”

“Very. You’re up, Leeds. And remember. You can’t ask me. We’d just go back and forth the entire trip.”

It didn’t change their plans one bit.

“Peter. Truth or dare.”

Smiling at Betty for a second, Ned was ecstatic once Peter answered.

“Dare.”

“Kiss MJ for five seconds.” He responded without skipping a beat.

There was no way they wouldn’t crack.

In a few moments, they would confess their feelings to one another and the nightmare would be over with.

However, the unexpected happened.

Peter just shrugged.

Scooting over towards MJ, he placed one hand in her hair, and leaned in.

This couldn’t have been happening!

They were supposed to crack!

He was sure of it!

Peter and MJ smiled into the kiss as Ned and Betty sat across from them with their jaws dropped.

Exactly five seconds later, they separated, and he smirked back at them.

“I, good sir, am no chicken. Betty, truth or dare?”

It took both of them a while to process what had just occurred.

Ned nudged Betty briefly and whispered.

“They’ll break eventually. Just go along with it.”

She nodded in response.

“Truth. Just say the first thing that pops into your head.”

Ned and Betty had to get their rounds over with.

Fast.

“How many people have you dated before Ned?”

Her response came as fast as lightning.

“None. MJ! Truth or dare?!”

The other girl’s response?

Not so much.

To them, MJ didn’t answer for what felt like an entire hour.

In reality, it was about ten seconds.

But it was still just as painful.

“Dare. Seriously. Peter and I are like, the only fun ones here. All you guys do is pick truth.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Sit on Peter’s lap for the next two peoples turns.”

This was it!

Now they’d tell each other!

Ned was sure of it!

Or… at least he thought he was.

MJ wrapped her arms around Peter’s neck, jumping into his lap without breaking eye contact from the two of them.

“Ned. Truth or dare.”

“Truth!”

“Okay, Mr. Boring as fuck. If you could change one thing about Betty, what would it be?”

That was a real cheap shot.

But it was better to get this over with than to use his chicken.

“I would make her shorter so I could carry her around in my pocket, blah blah blah. Peter! Truth or dare?!”

No matter what Peter chose, they would have to go to extreme lengths.

“Dare. Come on, guys. Do we have to be the interesting ones?”

“Yes! Okay?!” Ned’s voice was full of frustration. And for good reason. “Give MJ a hickey.”

It was something neither Ned nor Betty wanted to see, but they were losing their minds. In order to get them together, this was necessary.

However, they should have expected it to go off the rails

Again.

MJ smirked at Peter, still sitting on his lap, tilting her head to give him a proper angle.

Like the decent, and completely normal human beings they were, they shut their eyes as tight as possible and covered their ears.

The very idea of it still grossed Ned and Betty out.

Truth or dare went on for countless rounds.

Himself and Betty had a few dares themselves, but kept it to as few as possible.

And no matter what was asked of them or what they were told to do, they did it immediately.

The same could be said for Peter and MJ.

Nothing but dares were picked on their end.

Ned was running out of dares that could actually be seen, and done in public.

Those two psychotic lovebirds weren’t even cracking!

It didn’t count that they were doing all that stuff!

Not once did they confess their feelings!

No ‘I love you’!

No ‘I secretly draw you and have an entire closet full of notebooks with information on you’!

No ‘I threatened your bully because he hurt you’!

They were complete idiots!

If Peter and MJ could go through a train ride where they were told to kiss, sit on one another’s lap, give each other hickey’s, have her lick his chest (it really got out of hand after a few rounds), romantic nicknames, hold hands, French kiss, and do a few other unspeakable things, they would probably never really get together.

Once the train arrived at the station, Betty did the unthinkable.

Throwing her hands up in a huff, she shouted back at the potential couple at the top of her lungs.

“WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU TWO NOT DATING YET?!”

Peter and MJ glanced at each other, then towards Ned and Betty.

“Because we’re only fourteen.” She laughed. “Who the hell puts that kind of label on it at our age?”

“Yeah.” He agreed. “It’s kind of an unspoken thing, really.”

“But…” Ned began.

The two stood up from their place on the train, leaving the compartment suddenly.

“See you tomorrow, guys.” MJ said. “You guys got a way to get home, right?”

They immediately nodded in response, watching them disappear from the area.

After sitting in silence, a sudden realization came over Ned.

“Babe… they never said that they weren’t together.”

 

 

As Peter swung on his web through the night, without his suit since it was too dark to see his face, MJ wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, holding onto him tightly.

It wasn’t the first time she had joined him on his web swinging.

That was a whole can of worms she didn’t want to revisit.

But things became a lot easier, and a lot less scary the second time around.

Dropping MJ off by her bedroom window, Peter sat on top of her roof, hanging upside-down and smiling at her.

“So… that was weird.”

She inched closer to his face with her smile continuing to grow.

“But kind of fun… right?”

Their noses brushed together slightly, breathing heavily.

“It was.” He agreed.

“And I kinda wanna try something else.”

Without warning, MJ leaned in towards his face, pressing her lips against his own.

Putting both hands on the sides of his head, she sighed contently as they kissed upside-down.


	49. Chapter 49

“So, you really think they’re together?” Betty asked once again, sitting in her place on the couch.

“Pretty sure.”

Ned was almost one hundred percent sure that Peter and MJ were dating.

Only technically speaking that is.

Those two were both so fucking crazy that they were willing to call each other ‘future husband’ or ‘future wife’, and probably tons of other weird nicknames, but refused to call it dating.

“Okay then. Are we going to talk to them about it or what?”

Ned shrugged.

“That would be the mature thing to do. Or… just hear me out, babe… we can follow them, catch them in the act, and mess with them for lying to us all this time.”

Betty raised her eyebrows at him with a grin forming on her face.

“I like your idea better, let’s do it! Then we could go on double dates, and hang out all the time! I mean, we do that now, but still!”

“And then we’ll all be neighbors after college! Our kids will all be best friends, and they’ll both stop being complete psychopaths! They might need a therapist to work through all the lying the do to each other, and I’m always going to be at least a little bit scared of them, and could you imagine what kind of kid they would have? They’d get the craziness from both of them, MJ’s supervillain-ness, Peter’s lack of care for his own safety, their manipulative, lying, mutually stalking, threatening, terrifying…”

 

 

The sunlight coming through Peter’s window shined directly into MJ’s eyes, causing her to wake up immediately.

‘When the hell did he open the curtains?’ MJ thought to herself.

Groaning, she pulled the blanket over her head and was once again immersed in darkness.

MJ had actually been spending time at Peter’s place more often than not.

Having Aunt May work constantly provided them plenty of opportunities to be alone.

It was the best feeling in the world to get away from her annoying family, and it was even better to be around him.

That including sharing a bed.

Only a few months ago, she had told herself it would happen one day, but she never expected it to happen so soon.

No one would hear MJ’s’ complaining though.

The top bunk of the bed shifted slightly as Peter began to stir next to her.

In just a few moments, the blanket was pulled away by him, causing the sunlight to get in her eyes once again.

MJ turned away from the window, glaring at her future husband.

“You’d better have a good reason for this, Parker.”

Instead of speaking, he leaned down towards her and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

Before he could pull away, MJ wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping him close.

Peter melted into the kiss, cupping MJ’s face.

 

 

Outside of the house in the driveway, Ned held the ladder steady as Betty gazed through the window with the video camera.

They were together!

Betty had to keep herself composed, but on the inside, she was celebrating like a crazy person.

Peter and Michelle sitting in a tree! (It was really a bed though) K – I – S – S – I – N – G!

“What do you see?!” He whisper shouted up to her.

Peter’s head shot up, breaking away from MJ’s lips.

How in the world was he able to hear him?!

Betty jumped down from the window right before Peter could see her, falling on top of Ned.

It took everything he had in order to avoid crying out in pain.

“Sorry, babe.” Betty apologized, standing up from the concrete.

“It’s fine.” He groaned. “But maybe give me a little warning before you do that next time?”

She quickly pulled the latter away from the window, leaning it against the side of the house.

Peter got up from the bed, heading towards the window and leaving MJ alone.

“Where are you going?”

“I thought I just heard something outside.”

Betty grabbed Ned by the neckline of his shirt, hiding behind the car as the window was opened.

“What was it?” MJ asked.

The two of them peaked their heads out slightly, watching his movements.

Curiously, he closed his eyes, breathing calmly.

“People. Two heartbeats.”

Heartbeats?

There was no way that was possible!

After he took a long sniff, he opened his eyes.

“Ned and Betty are outside.” Peter said, closing the window. “Probably coming to visit or something.”

Betty grabbed Ned by the shirt once again, dragging him towards the door to pretend that was the case.

“Cool.” MJ said, getting up from the bed. “But I already had solid plans to spend all day sleeping, so they’d better be here to do something good.”

It was for the good of humanity.

At least, it was for the good of humanity in Netty’s eyes.

Taking the film out from the camera, Betty tossed it into the neighbors bushes a single second before the door swung open.

The two were both greeted by Peter and MJ, and there were a few things that Betty had to note.

First of all, she was clearly wearing one of his shirts.

The science pun was a dead giveaway. Not to mention the size of it.

‘Her’ shirt appeared to be quite large in the arms and in the chest.

MJ’s shoulder was exposed slightly, along with some red marks that she chose to ignore.

But the length of the shirt also looked weird.

It looked so short on her, that her belly button was visible.

The second thing to note was that MJ had clearly spent the night over at his place!

Probably not in a… THAT way.

Peter seemed like the kind of guy who was too responsible to do it at his young age.

Sharing a bed, and not doing the deed?

They were already acting like a married couple!

Ned and Betty would have to address his almost superhero level hearing and bloodhound like sense of smell later on.

“Hey guys.” Peter said, eyes darting between them. “What are you guys doing here so early?”

Without thinking, Betty responded immediately.

“What are you guys doing here so early?!”

Definitely a normal question.

“Because I live here?” Peter responded. “And MJ just slept over here. Those bunk beds are really coming in handy.”

‘Yeah, right!’ She thought to herself. ‘I saw you two making out in the same bed!’

“Oh… yeah.” Ned awkwardly began. “We just thought we’d drop by to… do something fun? Babe, you want to take this one?”

They really should have spent more time coming up with an excuse in case they were caught.

She loved Ned, but now he was dumping all the hard work on her.

Balancing on a ladder while holding a camera was anything but easy.

Betty subtly nudged her boyfriend in the ribcage, smiling as she did so.

“Silly Ned! I talked to you about this on the way here! We were wondering if you wanted to come to breakfast with us?”

Okay. It wasn’t the exact definition of fun. And with a little more time, she could have come up with something a little bit more believable. But Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Brant was no liar. Plus, she was just really hungry.

MJ shrugged.

“I could eat. Is it okay if we change real quick?”

“Into what?” Betty asked.

“I’ve got some spare clothes here.” She stated, before closing the door in their faces.

She already had clothes at his house!

Ned turned to Betty excitedly.

“So, what did you –”

She quickly placed her hand over his mouth, effectively ending his words.

‘Don’t say a single word.’ She mouthed to him.

Ned nodded slowly as she took out her phone to send him a text.

Betty: Peter can hear what we’re saying!

Ned: He was just joking about the heartbeat thing! Now, what did you see?! I’m literally dying over here, babe!

Betty: He wasn’t joking! Anyways, Peter and MJ were sleeping in the same bed! And they were making out!

Ned: No way! So, they’re together!

Betty: No shit, Sherlock.

The two put away their phones just as Peter and MJ came back outside, dressed in different clothes.

MJ was very clearly wearing one of his flannels.

It seemed as if they weren’t even trying to keep their relationship a secret.

Peter might as well have been wearing a t-shirt that said ‘I’m in love with Michelle Jones!’


	50. Chapter 50

As the group of four were sitting in a booth in the diner, the waitress held up her notepad, going over their orders once again.

“So, that’s two orders of the waffles with a side of bacon, one order of the pancakes, and for you…” She said, turning to Peter with a look of disbelief on her face. “The family sized breakfast deal?”

He smiled proudly back at her, handing over his menu.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She reluctantly took it out from his hands.

“You are aware that your order is meant to feed four people?”

Crime fighting really works up an appetite.

And he was still burning off calories like crazy because of his superpowers.

“I’m fully aware.”

Not to mention that the family sized breakfast deal only cost nine bucks.

Peter would have been an idiot not to have gone for it.

“Do you know that it includes five pancakes, four eggs that have been scrambled, a whole plate of potatoes, and a dozen pieces of bacon?”

The price was almost criminal.

Peter was probably the first idiot to ever go for it.

“Exactly. And four waters to go around, please.”

“If you think you can handle it, kid.”

The waitress left the booth in a huff, leaving Peter and MJ sitting across from Ned and Betty.

They were pretty much the only people in there, and the grumble coming from his stomach could easily be heard by all of them.

Peter looked down at himself, then back up at Ned and Betty.

MJ obviously didn’t need an explanation, since she already knew about his powers, and was surprisingly fine with his weird eating habits.

“I, uh… skipped out on supper yesterday. Aunt May had to work at the hospital, I tried to cook for myself, almost burned down the house.” He laughed awkwardly. “Do you guys want to have some of my breakfast? Plenty to go around.”

The other couple shook their heads quickly in response, appearing to be slightly unsettled by the situation.

“We’re all good, buddy.” Ned said. “So, MJ, just out of curiosity, is there any reason you were sleeping over at Peter’s last night?”

They quickly glanced at one another, before turning back towards the two.

MJ readjusted her – well… HIS – flannel by pulling it back onto her shoulder before answering his question.

“We’re friends. Friends sleep over at each others places. We’ve done it tons of times. Because we’re such great friends.”

She may or may not have put a subtle emphasis on the word ‘friend’.

It didn’t seem to come off as strange to Ned and Betty, but for some reason, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Hang on…” Betty began. “What time did you get to Peter’s place?”

They were really trying to get some specifics.

The waitress came back briefly to place a glass of water in front of each of them, and left almost immediately.

After they said a quick ‘thank you’, Betty asked her question again.

“What time did you get to Peter’s.”

MJ and Peter still had no idea what was going on here.

“Like, four o’clock. Why?”

Ned appeared to get the idea, which was still unknown to Peter and MJ.

“Peter said he almost burned the house down when he was cooking.” She stated, smirking slightly. “And then he ‘skipped out’ on supper. Or at least he claimed he did. So, if he’s starving, and you were probably there when he was trying to cook, how come you’re not going to be scarfing down food like a maniac?”

It wasn’t that big a deal.

They just happened to poke a hole in his eating frenzy story, not the story about them being ‘friends’.

Either way, Peter and MJ had been caught in a lie.

“Don’t worry about it.” He said, trying to change the conversation. “So, MJ, Ryan and Angela are going into the first grade. What’s that like?”

“Well, Peter, it’s –”

“I have a few more questions.” Betty continued, much to their disappointment. “You two answered the door at the exact same time. And we didn’t ring the doorbell or even knock. How’d you know we were at the door?”

It was getting a little bit worse.

Now they were starting to figure out his superpowers.

To a certain degree, that is.

They were focusing on his boosted metabolism, and the super hearing.

Very not good.

“I heard something outside. Then we just decided to check it out, and it turned out you were there.”

Thankfully, before Betty had another chance to poke a hole in another one of their stories, the waitress came back with their plates, placing one each in front of Ned, Betty, and MJ, and three in front of Peter.

How she managed to carry six in total left all of them in awe.

“Enjoy, kiddos.”

“Thank you.” They all responded in unison.

 

 

As Betty took out her fork and knife to cut into her waffles, thinking of dropping her failed interrogation, something very interesting caught her eye.

Peter and MJ had shifted closer together, shoulders brushing together with gigantic smiles on their faces.

They were talking too quietly for Ned and Betty to hear what they were saying.

He was practically trying to eat her ear by the looks of it.

That wasn’t the best way to describe it, but it was all that could come to mind.

Those two needed to get more subtle.

Betty and Ned both were incredibly frustrated at this point.

The plan had been to mess with them some more and keep poking holes in their stories until they slipped up so big, they’d have to confess. But she was about to end those plans.

“OH MY GOD!” She shouted towards them at the top of her lungs. “WE KNOW YOU TWO ARE FUCKING TOGETHER!”

The entire diner stopped for a moment.

All the waiters and waitresses turned towards Betty, along with the few other customers surrounding them.

Betty blushed furiously, while Ned raised his hand up to get their attention.

“Nothing to see here, folks. Jedi business. Go back to your drinks.”

“Not the time for prequel quotes, babe.” She whispered as everyone went back to their work and food.

“Babe. There’s never NOT a time for prequel quotes. And the new Star Wars movie is coming out in one hundred and forty-six days, I gotta do it.”

Peter and MJ were staring down at their food sheepishly, blushing a shade of red that would make Betty look pale. Even in her severe state of embarrassment.

Maybe she should have thought this part through.

Just a little bit.

There was no going back now, however.

The secret was finally out, and Ned could finally rest easy.

“H-how… how long have you known?” MJ asked quietly.

“Two days.” Ned stated. “Well, we kind of had a feeling two days ago after you got off the train. But we really found out this morning when Betty saw you guys making out in the same bed.”

Betty didn’t think it was possibly, but their blushing grew an even deeper red.

It was as if they were cartoon characters or something. She could swear that smoke was coming out of their ears.

“Kind of stalking your best friend, dude, but whatever.” Peter muttered.

“Oh, come on!” Ned exclaimed. “You broke into MJ’s house! And seriously, she has an entire closet of notebooks on you! If you guys want to see stalking, work through your relationship and get more honest with each other.”

He actually presented some pretty good arguments. They looked like saints in comparison.

“It’s not breaking in if I knew he was there.” MJ said, now making eye contact for the first time in a couple of minutes. “And we don’t need to work through our relationship. We’re completely honest with each other.”

“Yeah. I know all about the notebooks and the drawings.”

“And I know about him getting government equipment to spy on me. He didn’t use it, but it’s still romantic.”

“There’s nothing wrong with sharing a bed.”

“I can be openly threatening to people who are mean to my loser.”

“I actually borrow her clothes sometimes.”

“We get to say ‘I love you’ without it feeling weird.”

“I know she kissed me on the cheek when I was unconscious a few times.”

“And we’ve already agreed on names for our kids. Our relationship is perfect the way it is.”

Peter and MJ now started to dig into their food nonchalantly, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“Can I add one more thing?” He asked with his mouth full of pancakes.

Ned and Betty nodded slowly.

“I’m glad this is out of the way, but now we can be as openly romantic as we want, so you guys are eventually going to regret this. And MJ gets kind of... clingly. In all honesty, I'm not much better.”


	51. Chapter 51

Closing the door behind him, Peter walked towards the bed to see that MJ was already sitting there. A large smile spread to his face the moment he layed eyes on her. With her glasses on while staring down at a book, mouthing the words as she did so, Peter never thought she looked more beautiful.

Pulling the covers back to crawl in next to her, he placed a quick kiss to her cheek, while placing his own glasses on their bedside table.

“Is everyone down for the night?” MJ asked quietly, closing her book.

“Yep. I mean, it took a while for May to fall asleep. Honestly, I thought I’d never be able to leave. But don’t worry. She’s not going to get up for the rest of the night.”

Peter closed his eyes, sighing contently.

This was the first time he’d been able to go to bed peacefully in a long time. Granted, he loved May, Leia, Dahlia, and Ben more than anyone. However, they made quiet time in the household something incredibly rare.

“You’re sure?” She asked once again.

“One hundred percent.” He yawned.

Right before Peter was about to drift off to sleep, he felt MJ place two hands on his chest, moving to straddle his waist.

Weakly opening his eyes, he gazed up at her to see that she was smirking down on him.

“I know you’re tired, but hear me out. I’ll do most of the work.”

“I, uh… well –”

MJ cut him off by leaning down and locking their lips together while cupping his face with both hands.

Peter tried to resist. He really did. But somehow, found himself wrapping his arms around her waist. She always told him that she was his ‘one weakness’. And no matter how ridiculous and cliché it sounded; it was proved to be true on the regular.

Grabbing the hem of her shirt (which was really his shirt), Peter lifted it halfway up her torso, causing MJ to break off the kiss to do it herself.

Before she could however, he came to a sudden stop, breathing heavily.

“What if we wake one of them up?” Peter whispered.

“God, Peter.” She sighed, bringing her shirt back down. “Can you even remember the last time we had sex?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but found himself coming up empty. The sad truth was, he couldn’t remember. And that certainly wasn’t a good sign. The fact is that they certainly wanted to have sex. And definitely would have if they had the time. But since they didn’t, both of them had found themselves to be a little… pent-up from time to time.

After going back in his head, Peter still had no answer, choosing to guess instead.

“Two weeks?”

“Three weeks.” MJ corrected. “Exactly twenty-three days ago. It was Ben’s first day of preschool, we got the day off work, and actually did something for ourselves. Don’t tell me you don’t want to do this. If we stay quiet, we’ll be in the clear.”

Peter immediately scoffed.

“When have you ever been quiet?”

That particular comment earned him a light smack on the chest from MJ, which he shook off as if it was nothing.

“Dork. How about this? You stop me if I make noise, and just in case they wake up, we’ll make it a quickie. No foreplay. Sounds good?”

It was probably the best he was going to get out of her. Negotiating with Michelle Jones was always a losing battle, no matter who she was up against. And the truth was, he wanted in too.

Flipping them over so he was on top, Peter hovered over her, leaning forward while sliding her shirt off.

With his super hearing and reflexes, he jumped off of her back on to his side of the bed just at the bedroom door began to open.

Peter may have put some extra distance between them, just for good measure.

Walking into their bedroom, was their sixteen-year-old daughter, Dahlia. As the oldest of the four kids they had raised together, it was pretty obvious to everyone in the room what was going on. But Peter and MJ just chose to ignore that fact with their children. Living in denial made moments like this a whole lot easier.

Through twenty years of marriage, they’d avoided giving any ‘talks’ to their kids. That’s what MJ’s siblings were for. Just because they were in their forties, didn’t mean they were THAT responsible.

MJ awkwardly pulled her shirt back down, putting on a smile while locking hands with her husband.

“Hey, sweetie.” She said, gesturing to the foot of the large bed. “Do you want to take a seat?”

Dahlia was pretty much an exact copy of her mother. Other than inheriting his lighter skin tone and had a rather muscular physique due to the spider powers, she could have easily passed for a younger version of MJ.

“Thanks.” Dahlia sighed, sitting across from them. “Sorry about… this. But I’ve been thinking about something for a while, and I was hoping I could talk to you about it.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Spidey-Girl.” Peter laughed. “You know you can talk to us about anything. Except for boys.”

His wife punched him in the shoulder, which she’d made a habit of since they were teenagers. She was actually pretty comfortable talking to their kids about romance. Peter never really liked the idea of getting involved with that aspect of their lives. Especially since how crazy his was at that age.

“Well…” Dahlia said, rubbing her arm nervously. “I actually wanted to talk to you about… my boyfriend. We’ve been dating for a while, and I’ve invited him over for dinner tomorrow.”

Those were the two sentences every father hoped they would never have to hear from their daughter.

At least that’s what Peter hoped. He knew what boys were like. And they weren’t good enough for his daughters. He should know. He was one of them.

“And I’m guessing when you say you’ve invited him over for dinner, we’re going to roast him Ewok style?” Peter asked.

Ignoring her husband, MJ leaned forward, smiling at her daughter.

“He’s only joking. I hope.”

“I’m not, though.”

“Shut up, dork.”

Ah, ‘shut up dork’. The ultimate way to win an argument.

“We’d be glad to have him over. What did you want to talk to us about specifically?”

They were sixteen-year-olds! Peter also knew what kids did at that age. He did the ‘it’ with MJ when they were that old!

And yes. He understood that he was being a complete hypocrite.

“I’m just nervous about you guys meeting him. And everyone else. What did you guys do when you met Aunt May and Grandma and Grandpa?”

After being together for nearly three decades, couples tended to form some kind of mindreading thing. And in that moment, Peter and MJ were thinking about the exact same story.

“I met Aunt May when Peter was getting his powers. And we weren’t even dating at the time. So, that wasn’t that bad.”

“The actual ‘meet the parents’ thing happened during the summer before high school after we’d been together for a couple of months.”

“You guys got together before high school?” Dahlia asked in disbelief.

They had been saving that story until Ben was a little bit older. The effect it would have on their sense of romance probably wasn’t going to be a positive one.

“Doesn’t matter.” MJ said quickly in response. “Here’s the story about how your father met my parents. It all started one day when Peter got back from the bugle, and we were –”

“Hang on.” He interrupted. “I already met your dad before that. He was Jeremy’s vet.”

“Oh, right!” She exclaimed.

“So, it’s really the story of how I met your grandmother. And trust me, Spidey, this story doesn’t go well for either of us.”


	52. Chapter 52

Being a superhero hadn’t exactly improved Peter’s life the way people would have expected.

Behind all the fame and powers, the reality was that it did more harm than good, all because it was his responsibility. He was always late, people around the city hated him, he always had to lie to Aunt May and Ned, and his boss ‘libeled’ him for a living.  
Jameson made it extremely clear that it wasn’t slander if it was written. And Peter had to agree with him on that part.

However, one of the few good things that came out of being Spider-Man was technically being a member of the Avengers.

Peter was more of a solo act, but if he was a superhero, and had free roam of Avengers Tower, and built gadgets with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, and surprisingly grew close with the other members of the Avengers in the past few months, that apparently meant he was an Avenger.

Peter had to admit that it was pretty awesome.

In that short period of time, there were a few crucial things to note.

Thor loved pop tarts, and claimed that he was dating Padme from Star Wars (during a day where Peter decided to expose the Asgardian to George Lucas’ masterpiece).

Hawkeye lived on a farm just like he did, which provided them with plenty to bond over.

Captain America was probably just as nice (if not nicer) in person than he was in the school videos. 

MJ’s favourite Avenger, Black Widow, happened to take an almost immediate liking to his future wife.

And finally, they were all the absolute WORST at giving advice.

Peter had to make a huge effort to mention nothing about his personal life around them. Especially anything about MJ.

When Tony found out they were together, he decided to sit the two of them down to give the dreaded ‘talk’. It was unfair to get that at least once in your life. Getting it for the fifth time? That was just cruel.

Every single one Peter’s heroes had a go at it, and used every cliché in the book.

The birds and the bees. Your bodies are changing. Be safe. Use protection.

All that information made their skin crawl. Not to mention they didn’t want to do the deed yet.

Anyways, after a long day getting scolded by Jameson, and an exhausting conversation with Betty, Ned, and MJ, Peter decided it was time to visit Avengers Tower, where he would forget all the lessons he had learned.

Faceplanting onto the couch, Peter let out a loud groan, grabbing the attention of all six of the Avengers.

“I’m going to sit here, so you’re going to have to move your legs.” Tony said, tapping his foot.

He quickly obliged, lifting his legs up in the air to have Tony sit down right next to him.

“Bad day, kid?” He asked.

Without thinking, Peter uttered the words that a boy should NEVER say to his second family.

“I’m going to meet MJ’s parents.”

By the time her realized what he said, they were all gathered around him, each prepared to give Peter their trademarked form of terrible advice.

It was impossible to understand any of them since they were all speaking at the same time.

All this chaos was brought to order once Thor dropped his hammer on the floor, causing a loud thud to echo throughout the room.

“All right, my friends!” He said proudly with his voice booming. “The spider-child has reached an important milestone, and he needs our help.”

“I actually d –”

“So…” Thor interrupted. “Let’s do this one at a time. As the most experienced, I shall go first!”

“And what makes you the most experienced?’ Natasha asked in a stern voice with her arms crossed.

“Are you serious? I’m fifteen hundred years old. I’ve lived about fifty times longer than any of you!”

He was right. Peter did the math in his head.

Contrary to the public’s opinion of Thor, he was actually quite intelligent. But not when it came to earth.

“In Asgard, when you’re meeting a woman’s parents, it’s customary to bring them a gift. Take a horse for example. Or perhaps a few goats. Even a duck will do. If you show them that you’re able to provide for your future family, they should approve of you courting their daughter! And be careful not to destroy any of their personal property. That will immediately make things, as they say, 'go south'.”

The only flaw in that plan was that he didn’t have a horse. Jeremy certainly ate like one. However, he didn’t count. Plus, Peter wanted to keep his dog.

Bruce and Steve pushed Thor out of the way, taking his place in front of Peter.

“You don’t need to bring them a gift, Peter.” Bruce stated.

“Just be yourself. And if they don’t like you for you, they’re not worth the trouble. All that matters is that MJ likes you.”

Clint scoffed from across the room, rolling his eyes at the rest of them.

“Don’t listen to any of these guys, kid. What you really want to do, is impress her parents. Do a backflip or something. If you look cool, you can’t lose.”

Peter rolled off of the couch, landing onto the floor with a thud while staring up at the ceiling.

“Have any of you actually met your girlfriend’s parents?”

Everyone in the room was silent for a moment before answering.

“Betty’s dad tried to kill me.” Bruce said.

“My mother died when she met Jane.”

“My parents are dead.” Steve and Nat said in unison.

“Laura’s mom loves me.”

“It really helps if you’re a billionaire.” Tony stated.

 

 

Surprisingly, it was nearly impossible to become a billionaire in less than twenty-four hours. So, here he was, standing outside of MJ’s house while covered in enough sweat to fill the Mackenzie River.

This time, he had to enter through the front door instead of her window.

Something about common courtesy or whatever.

From what MJ had told him (and based on his personal experience), Jane would stop at nothing to completely ruin the evening.

And much to his future wife’s disappointment, they weren’t meeting for dinner or anything like that.

As MJ had put it: ‘If we were having dinner, I could have something to throw at Jane’.

But it wasn’t all bad. That only meant that it would just be himself, MJ, and her parents. Jane would be nowhere around to ruin anything. Or at least she shouldn’t have been.

Peter wanted to stick by MJ for the rest of their lives. And, by extension, that included her family. No matter how much she went on and on about how annoying they were and how little she wanted to be around them, family was family.

As the door opened in front of him, his worries were forgotten for just a moment, locking eyes with MJ.

She appeared to be as nervous as he was.

When she was relaxed, she liked to have her hair down. But after almost a year of knowing MJ, he had picked up on all her habits. Whenever she was panicking, she would braid her hair. Just like it was now.

Other things to note, was that MJ was holding onto her ‘doomsday’ mug. Something she only used during a large test, presentation, or the end of the world. Combining this with her ultra straightened posture, flared nostrils, and the fact that she was wearing his hoodie for some extra comfort, MJ was clearly terrified.

“You look beautiful.” He smiled.

“Fuck off.” She responded without skipping a beat. “You love me, right?”

Her usual ‘fuck off’ was a lot less hateful.

“More than anyone.”

As to why she had to ask eluded him. Peter told her that he loved her everyday.

“I know.” MJ said, walking out of the house while grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. “Just wanted to remind you of that so you’ll have to do whatever I say.”

“That’s…” He trailed off, trying to find the right words to carefully get his point across. “… not really how love works.”

She then pulled keys out from her pocket, unlocking one of the cars in the driveway and shoving him into the passenger seat.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But you DO love me, so hear me out.” MJ said, getting into the driver’s seat. “We both don’t want to do this, so we just take this car, leave the country, and forget everything.”

MJ was clearly blowing this thing out of proportions. And obviously, she wasn’t joking. He wouldn’t be surprised if she had a bunch of cash already stashed in the trunk.

“We can’t just leave New York.” He groaned.

“Why not? My family sucks, and Aunt May can visit us whenever. Plus, if we move to Canada, I’ve read that under special circumstances, we could maybe get married when we turn sixteen. It’s perfect!”

“MJ, no… wait. Canada?” Peter asked, slightly intrigued.

On some level, he knew she was playing him. MJ knew him far too well, because it was working like a charm.

“Yep.” She smirked, running her hands through his hair. Peter closed his eyes, sighing happily. “Just think about it. We’d get a nice farm, four kids, and we wouldn’t have to worry about this ever again.”

MJ pressed her foot down on the gas while continuing to look at Peter, pulling out of the driveway faster than they both expected.

They immediately came to a stop, slamming the hood of the car against the garage door that was across the street.

Peter and MJ snapped their attention forward, watching smoke come front the engine while the car itself and the door were both significantly dented.  
“Or, you know… we could just suck it up, hope my parents don’t kill me, and hope I’m not grounded for the rest of my life. Sound good?”

He nodded quickly in response, stepping out of the vehicle with MJ and grabbing onto the front. Looking around to see that nobody was around, Peter picked up the entire thing with ease, carrying it back towards the house.

Placing it down with a thud, he noticed that he had dug his hands so deep into the metal that it was left even more damaged than it used to be.

“That’s not good.” MJ said.

“I know. But don’t worry. I think I can smooth it out a little bit.”

Peter peeled the metal as if it was made out of paper, accidentally ripping the hood off completely.

“Okay, new plan. I’ll go inside and give everybody a light drug that’ll make them fall asleep for a few hours. That should be enough time to fix this m –”

“MICHELLE MARY JANE JONES!” Her mother shouted at the top of her lungs.

Peter and MJ both turned towards the furious Robin Jones.

Clearing his through and putting on an awkward smile, he gently placed the hood of the car on the ground, and walked towards Robin while extending his hand.

“Mrs. Jones!” He exclaimed. “It’s great to meet you! Your daughter has told me so much about you!”

“No, I haven’t.” She muttered to herself.

In all honesty, this was the first time Peter had seen an angry mother. Aunt May had screamed at him every once in a while. Especially since becoming Spider-Man. But it was never at this level. Granted, he’d never destroyed a Mercedes before.

Still… could be worse.

Immediately, the car slammed down on one side as two of the tires came rolling off down the driveway and into the street.

“Oh… crap.”


	53. Chapter 53

Peter felt his heartbeat increase greatly as he began to free fall towards the ground. Through all the ups and downs of being Spider-Man (mostly downs), the thing that gave him the most joy was web swinging.

Just being able to go so high about the buildings and so fast through the streets provided Peter with a sense of exhilaration and freedom that nothing else in the world could match.

Up here, nothing else mattered. It was his time alone. There weren’t any worries about school, Jameson, all the hate he received, or the fear of disappointing everyone. All of that just melted away.

Before he was about to hit the sidewalk, Peter shot one of his webs at a building, launching him back up into the air.

Pulling out his phone briefly to check the time, his happiness reached a new high. For once in his life, he wasn’t going to be late. And the last thing he needed was to make Aunt May – or MJ for that matter – angry.

Ever since his surrogate mother had found out that he was Spider-Man, their relationship had been a little bit… strained.

Peter couldn’t even blame her for the reaction.

Her last family member in the world had been risking their life for years. Against people with guns, no less. Not to mention the Green Goblin, the Rhino, Kraven, Chameleon, the Lizard, and a bunch of other psychos. Plus, he was friends with a man-eating parasite.

Eddie was great though. Despite all the personality flaws, occasional cannibalism, and his anti-hero tendencies, Peter still considered him as a great friend. For some reason.

He wanted to make Aunt May happy. He really did. But he also wanted to keep his promise to Uncle Ben. Peter couldn’t stop.

Just as he was about to turn the corner, a group of police cars came speeding down the street. And they were going in the opposite direction of the school.

“What have you got for me today, New York?” He sighed, turning around swiftly in mid-air.

Peter felt his phone start to vibrate while playing her ringtone; ‘Michelle’ by The Beatles. She claimed to hate it, even though her ringtone for him was; ‘I’m With Stupid’.

He immediately let go of his web and dropped down onto one of the police cars to answer the call, but still keeping his gaze locked on to the armoured truck.

“Hey, sweetie.” He greeted, with his voice muffled through his mask.

“Hey, tiger.” MJ smiled, holding the phone up to her ear with one hand and holding her cap in the other.

Peter still had no idea where that nickname came from. He wasn’t sure if she was doing it to tease him, or because she thought it was cute or something. But no matter the intention, it always made him happy to hear her say it.

“They’re starting in, like, five minutes. Are you going to show up or…?” She asked jokingly.

“Uh… y-yeah.” He hesitated. “I’m only a few hundred meters away. Maybe an entire kilometer. Heading in the opposite direction. And I may or may not be, but definitely am going to be late.”

Stupid honesty.

“Leave it to Peter Parker to be late to his own graduation.” MJ quipped, looking off towards Aunt May who was among the crowd of parents and other family members. “Do you want me to tell her about this?”

Peter jumped off of the police car, running on the side of the building to get closer to the armored truck.

He could easily see through the hole that had been cut into the roof, and the group was quickly loading up duffle bags of cash with a driver in the front.

“I don’t want her to worry.” Peter stated. “If she asks, I’ll tell her I was helping some lady cross the street.”

“And why wouldn’t your breath smell like churros? Honestly, have I taught you nothing about lying?”

As the truck swerved to the left, Peter shot a web across the street to remain in pursuit. Keeping half of his focus on the criminals with the other half on his girlfriend, he dodged the incoming bullets effortlessly.

Gunfire was something both of them had gotten used to over their years together. She never directly admitted she was worried about him, but he still got the sense that she was.

No relationship could go without arguments. They’d gone through their fair share. All of which were about Spider-Man.

It was understandable. MJ loved him, and was scared that he would die. She would have been a pretty bad person if she wasn’t.

But the great thing was that they could always talk to each other. At the end of every argument, they’d always end up on the same side.

“I know.” Peter sighed. “I’m sorry that I can’t be there for your speech.”

MJ immediately scoffed.

“Don’t worry about it. Valedictorian speeches are complete crap. And it’ll be boring because Mr. Harrington threw out all of my ideas. They were, quote: ‘Far too inappropriate, rude, and graphic for a high school graduation.’ People should be able to say what they want, when they want. People are the worst these days.”

“When did that ever stop you before?” He asked, landing on top of the truck. “I gotta go. I love you.”

“Love you too. Don’t be surprised if I mention your butt.”

She quickly hung up before he could respond, leaving him shaking his head. He was all too familiar with her embarrassing rants regarding his rear end.

“Okay. Get your head in the game, Spider-Man.” Peter said to himself, entering the back of the truck through the hole.

He was met with three masked thugs, each too wrapped up in the job to notice his presence.

Peter kicked two of them in the back of the head simultaneously, while grabbing the other by the neck. He sent him flying out of the back, attaching a web to him which stuck him to a building they were passing.

“Let’s wrap this up guys.” Peter smirked at the other two lying on the ground. “I kind of have a thing to get to.”

He carelessly tossed the bags of money out from the back, causing the police cars to come to a stop.

“You won’t miss those… right? Eh, probably not.”

They remained motionless, groaning in agony. Neither of them would be getting up any time soon. Peter decided to web both of them down for good measure.

Just as this was occurring, MJ let out a deep breath, stepping up to the microphone to give her speech.

“So…” She began in a monotone voice, looking down at paper in front of her. Out of nowhere, she crumpled it up, purposefully throwing it at Flash Thompson’s head. “good morning… friends, acquaintances, dumbasses, others. Don’t ask. You all know which category you’re in.”

MJ smirked at Mr. Harrington and Principal Morita in the front row, who’s eyes had widened in terror.

“High school’s finally over. If we’ve learned anything in the past four years – which was really five or six years for some of you, but that’s not here nor there – it’s that this was a complete waste of time. I mean, seriously. More than half of our short lives have been spent just for a piece of paper and a ridiculous handshake. And one of those is going to be from me, so that’s a rip off. Whatever. I guess it hasn’t been all bad. Eugene, do you remember that time you pissed your pants?”

Flash began to blush furiously, sinking down in his seat while muttering a quick ‘yes’.

“Don’t be embarrassed. Where else would we get that kind of quality entertainment?”

Peter crawled along the side of the truck, knocking on the driver’s window, signaling him to roll down the window.

He glared at the young hero, keeping one eye on the road as well in an attempt to avoid hitting anyone.

“Good morning, Mr. Criminal!” Peter exclaimed with an exaggerated tone, extending his hand. “If I could just have one minute of your time, I promise this will be worth it!”

The driver took his hands off of the wheel quickly to grab his head, but missed completely off the mark.

“Not a fan of door to door salesmen? Yeah… me neither. Most of them just end up asking out my aunt. Now, how about you share something about yourself.”

The criminal remained silent, growing more infuriated by Peter by the second.

“So, you aren’t much of a talker? Do you wanna play charades? I’ll go first!"

“Please!” He screamed, pulling out his gun. “Just shut the fuck up!”

Peter gasped, mechanical eyes widening as he jumped back up to the top of the truck.

“That was rude! How about we wrap this up instead? I told you I’m running a little late, buddy, and this day is kind of important!”

The rest of MJ’s speech went exactly as everyone expected. She badmouthed her teachers, humiliated her fellow graduates (including Ned and Betty because no one was safe in this situation), and even squeezed in a few lines about her boyfriend’s ass.

“The truth is, I’m supposed to be representing my class up here. So, in all seriousness, these people are actually pretty great. Honestly, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to come up with things I hate about them, but right now, I’m coming up empty. And that’s saying a lot, because I can say bad stuff by just telling the truth. Anyways, Midtown isn’t as shitty as I thought, people aren’t always stupid, and I’m glad you could all come today. End of speech.”

Peter grabbed the driver by the arm, dragging him out of the truck which had crashed into a brick wall with the engine starting to smoke.

He’d crashed his fair share of vehicles over the past few years. And he still hadn’t exactly lived down MJ’s mother’s Mercedes.

Peter didn’t even bother making a quip. He simply webbed him to the ground, and took off running back towards Midtown.

Internally, he was panicking. Not because he had to say goodbye to high school, but because he was going to do something really, REALLY important.

As he swung past each building, Peter clutched onto the small box in his hand which was beginning to tremble.

Technically speaking, he’d known that he’d be getting married to MJ since he was fourteen years old.

Peter had a whole plan going. After the graduation ceremony, he was going to take her to a nice, quiet place where she liked to read, set up a small place for them to sit, and then pop the question.

His original idea was to do it when he graduated, but neither of them cared to be around people. And it was pointless to make a big gesture. Simplicity seemed to be the best way to go.

Landing onto the ground, Peter made quick work of removing his suit, slipping on a cap and gown as he struggled to put on his left shoe.

Like any normal person, he resorted to hopping towards the stage, where people were already being called up one by one.

“Alexis Ortiz.” Mr. Morita spoke, audience clapping along with cheering coming from the students. “Peter Parker.”

The moment he got his shoe on, he took off running towards the stage while trying to keep his composure.

“Peter Parker.” He tried again.

Turning the corner, he smiled brightly while locking eyes with MJ, who was standing directly next to their principal.

“Sorry I’m late.” Peter apologized, cupping her cheek softly while locking their lips together.

He lingered slightly longer than anticipated, receiving a mixed response from his classmates. They were all too familiar with Peter and MJ’s ‘different’ relationship. Some were terrified. Other’s didn’t mind it. Not even Ned and Betty were one hundred percent ‘adjusted’.

Four years in high school gave them quite the reputation.

Letting go of MJ, leaving her slightly dishevelled, Peter trotted over to Mr. Morita, accepting his diploma and going for a high-five instead of a traditional handshake.

 

 

Peter wasn’t going to tell anyone about his plans with MJ. Not Mr. Stark, not Ned, and not even Aunt May. Not that he didn’t care about them. He really did. But the proposal just wouldn’t go as smoothly with them knowing.

Tony definitely would have insisted on making a grand gesture and to add ‘showmanship’. Ned might have literally lost his mind. And Aunt May would have fainted.

Not to mention proposing right out of high school wasn’t exactly seen as ‘normal’.

But their relationship was never a conventional one. And clearly, they weren’t actually going to get married until they graduated from university.

“Where are you off to?” Aunt May asked, standing in the bathroom doorway as Peter adjusted his hair in the mirror.

“I got a date with MJ. No big deal.” He said, fixing the collar of his flannel shirt and making sure the ring box was secure in his pocket.

Since he was able to get a full scholarship to M.I.T., his money from the bugle had been able to go towards the ring. And it was worth every penny.

Peter didn’t focus too much on the diamond. It wasn’t small in any sense, but it also wasn’t oversized. On the inside of the platinum band, he had engraved her initials, along with a small spider. Thankfully, the jewelers didn’t think to ask regarding the design.

“No big deal? Then why do you look like you’re going to hurl?”

May pressed her hand to his forehead to check his temperature. Out of nowhere, her ‘nurse’ side jumped out. It was almost the exact same as her ‘overprotective aunt’ side.

Laughing slightly, Peter ducked away from her, heading towards the door.

“I’m fine, May, really. I’m great, actually.” He looked down at his dog, flashing a grin. “I don’t look sick, right?”

Jeremy whimpered, lying down on the ground like the lazy dog he was.

“Oh, what do you know?”

 

 

Peter discovered a long time ago that hammocks made of out his webbing was actually pretty comfortable. On multiple occasions, he’d been forced to sleep in weird places all around the city, and resorted to making his own bed.

Surprisingly, they’d turned out to be some of the most comfortable nights of his life. Not including the ones with MJ, though.

She had a habit of going into the park for her reading time. Quite potentially her favourite place in the world. It was this nice, quiet place that no one else ever came to.

All that obviously made it the perfect place to propose.

Setting up a web hammock far off the ground in the trees, MJ leaned against him as they gazed up towards the sky. The only thing that could be heard out here were their breathing and their heartbeats.

“I love this place.” She sighed. “I’m going to miss it.”

Peter pressed a kiss to her forehead, rubbing her arm softly.

“Cambridge has parks too, MJ.”

While they weren’t going to the same university, Peter and MJ were able to live incredibly close to each other. Harvard and M.I.T. were only a few minutes apart, so they already had planned on living together. They wouldn’t be able to afford it, but it was better than living without her.

“They’re just not the same. I mean, I’ve never seen the parks there, but what can I say? I’m set in my ways. I’ll have to find a new book store, a new knife store, a tea place, bank, safe deposit box, storage unit…”

MJ continued to rant like her usual self, going on and on about how much she hated change, loved books, despised people, the brilliance of horror movies, which was basically everything he loved about her. He couldn’t wait any longer.

“Will you marry me?” Peter asked right out of the blue, putting a stop to her words.

MJ turned to him slowly with an expressionless face, even when he pulled the ring out, remaining mere inches away from her.

“Michelle Mary Jane Jones.” He smiled. “Ever since I met you, I’ve wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. For the past five years, you’ve been my –”

She immediately cut him off by pulling him in to a deep kiss, nearly unable to contain her excitement. MJ began to laugh blissfully as she slid the ring on her finger, leaving Peter with his jaw dropped.

“Let’s get out of here. Father Lantom’s still at the church this hour, right?”

“I, uh… kind of had a whole speech prepared. I worked on that a whole lot. A-and I’m still seventeen, so…” He trailed off. “yeah. We can’t really get married yet.”

MJ continued to pepper kisses all over his face, mumbling words as she did so.  
“I’m going marry you!”

Peter gave in, wrapping his arms around her waste and melting into the kiss. The cold platinum traced itself along the back of his neck, causing a chill to run down his spine.

Five years ago, he had been randomly paired up with a girl to show him around a school. And that was the best thing that ever happened to him.

By some miracle, she’d let her many guards down and allowed them to become friends.

From there, it wasn’t even hard to get together.

All he had to do was take his dog to the vet, who happened to be her father, go out to get some gas for his car, go out on their first ‘date’, get beaten up… a lot, spend the night at her place, share a bed, tell Uncle Ben about his crush, go over to Avengers Tower, accidentally get bitten by a radioactive spider, get sick, get taken care of by her, lose Uncle Ben, and after months of waiting, finally work up the courage to kiss her.

Nothing was complicated about it to him. It was simple. And after all that, he was really going to marry Michelle Jones.

Michelle Jones, without a single doubt in his mind, was the love of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, I intended this fic to be much longer. And I don't want to stop writting this, so I'll be starting a one shot fic as a part two of this series. Anyways, just for the sake of it, here's where I was going with this fic (which will not be in the one shots because its not happy): 
> 
> Peter sets up a meeting with Eddie as Spider-Man to talk about Oscorp kidnapping the homeless. They break into Oscorp and accidentally release the Venom symbiote. It starts to bond with Peter, taking on his abilities. Eddie grabs Venom, and starts to rip it away from Peter, and gets infected himself. During this, Eddie finds out Peter is Spider-Man, but doesn't freak out because he's currently terrified of what just happened. There would be pretty much the same thing that happened in the Venom movie, but with a lot more consequences for Eddie and Peter's personal lives thanks to the symbiote. The next day, Norman Osborn rants to Flash (Harry) about how much he hates Spider-Man for ruining the experiment. Wanting to impress his father and kill Spider-Man, Flash goes down to the lab, picks an experiment to make himself stronger and take on the superhero. Obviously, he becomes the Green Goblin, kills the scientist who helped him with it, and goes on a rampage. Falling into a costume store from a glider, he picks up a goblin mask, which is why it turns out to be so ridiculous. Thanks to this, there would be a more comic-accurate Flash Thompson who actually presents a physical threat to Peter. On the first day of high school, he decides to show off his new powers and takes on Peter. Peter remains unharmed, and immediately figures out that Flash is the goblin that's been terrorizing the city. With Eddie's condition getting worse, and Venom bringing out his bad side, Peter starts to neglect school for months, torn between his responsibilities as Spider-Man and hating his life as Peter (except for MJ because there's no relationship drama with them). Flash goes crazy and is consumed by his hate for both Peter and Spider-Man, and wants to ruin his life by taking away everything. After too many broken promises, Ned and Peter have a falling out, but their friendship isn't over. At least until Flash realized what the opportunity is, and starts to manipulate Ned. He ends up cutting off all of his 'friends' pretending to be a nice guy, and is destroying their friendship. Aunt May is once again pissed off at Peter for missing school and he's starting to fail. Once again, Peter's life sucks. Ned becomes one of his tormenters, completely ruined by Flash's manipulation. Eddie finally morphs into the full Venom form, complete with the white spider emblem, and goes on a ramage in the city. JJJ blames Spider-Man for this because he was at the scene, and Eddie gets fired from the bugle for his antics. Venom makes him a huge jerk, which is completely out of character. Peter's life is falling apart. May is angry, he's failing high school, and Ned and Flash are friends and are ruining his life both as Peter and as Spider-Man. MJ is the only good thing, and doesn't leave his side.
> 
> I don't know where I was going to go from there, but that was a rough idea. I chose to go a lot happier here, and once again, this thing still isn't over.


End file.
